NEW MEXICO, 

THE LAND OF THE 
DELIGHT MAKERS 



'SEE AMERICA FIRST" SERIES 

Each in one volume, decorative cover, profusely illustrated 



CALIFORNIA, ROMANTIC AND BEAUTIFUL 

By George Wharton James $5.00 

OLD PANAMA AND CASTILLO DEL ORO 

By C. L. G. Anderson $5.00 

THREE WONDERLANDS OF THE AMERICAN 
WEST 

By Thomas D. Murphy $5.00 

ON SUNSET HIGHWAYS (California) 

By Thomas D. Murphy $5-00 

TEXAS, THE MARVELLOUS 

By Nevin O. Winter $5-00 

ARIZONA, THE WONDERLAND 

By George Wharton James $5-00 

COLORADO: THE QUEEN JEWEL OF THE 
ROCKIES 

By Mae Lacy Baggs $500 

OREGON, THE PICTURESQUE 

By Thomas D. Murphy $5-00 

FLORIDA, THE LAND OF ENCHANTMENT 

By Nevin O. Winter $5-00 

SUNSET CANADA (British Columbia and Beyond) 
By Archie Bell $5-00 

ALASKA, OUR BEAUTIFUL NORTHLAND 
OF OPPORTUNITY 

By Agnes Rush Burr $500 

HOUSEBOATING ON A COLONIAL WATER- 
WAY (The James River, Virginia) 

By Frank and Cortelle Hutchins $2.50 

PANAMA AND THE CANAL TO-DAY 

By Forbes Lindsay $300 

A number of additional volumes are in preparation, 
including Our Wonderland of the East, Maine, 
Georgia, The Great Lakes, Louisiana, etc., and the 
" See America First " Series will eventually include 
the whole of the North American Continent. 



THE PAGE COMPANY 
53 Beacon Street Boston, Mass, 



The Water Maiden at Laguna. 

(See page 400.) 
From a Painting made expressly for the author by Lucille Jpullin. 



NEW MEXICO 

THE LAND OF THE 
DELIGHT MAKERS 

The History of its Ancient Cliff Dwellings and Pueb- 
los, Conquest by the Spaniards, Franciscan Missions ; 
Personal Accounts of the Ceremonies, Games, Social 
Life and Industries of its Indians ; A Description of its 
Climate, Geology, Flora and Birds, its Rivers and 
Forests ; A Review of its Rapid Development, Land- 
Reclamation Projects and Educational System ; with 
full and accurate accounts of its Progressive Counties, 
Cities and Towns. 



BY 
GEORGE WHARTON JAiMES 

AUTHOR OF 

"California, Romantic and Beautiful," "Arizona, 
the Wonderland," etc. 

With a map and fifty-six plates 
of which eight are in color 




THE P A G E C O M P A N Y 
BOSTON ^ PUBLISHERS 



■J~3 



Copyright, 1920, 
By The Page Company 

All rights reserved 



First Impression, March, 1920 



ftpR -7 i920 



THE COLONIAL PRESS 
C. H. SIMONDS CO., BOSTON, U. S. A. 



©CU566406 



TO 

JESSE WALTER FEWKES., 

CHIEF OF THE BUREAU OF 
AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 

With whom I have often foregath- 
ered around campfires in New Mex- 
ico, surrounded by the glamour of 
ancient peoples, pre-historic dwell- 
ings, aboriginal art, and present day 
Indians, and for whose kindly inter- 
est in my humble and unpretentious 
literary work I am deeply grateful. 



BY WAY OF FOREWORD 

This is the third of the books on the States of the 
American Southwest that I have been privileged to write 
for this See America First series; California, Romantic 
and Beautiful, being the first, Arizona, the Wonderland, 
the second. When I announced this third volume, my 
friends asked : " You surely cannot write as enthusi- 
astically about New Mexico as you have done about Cali- 
fornia and Arizona ? " Yet I knew I should find it 
equally easy. It was here that I came over thirty years 
ago, broken in health and spirits, and gained the renewing 
impulses and courage that ultimately won for me a fuller 
enjoyment of life than I had ever had before. With my 
roll of bedding I was ready to sleep on station-platform, 
when deposited, solitary and alone, often in the dead of 
night, from the irregularly running trains. I was free 
to wander ofif at my own sweet will, making my bed under 
pinion tree, cliff, or on sandy plain, wherever my patient 
burro might bring me. 

The sleeping out of doors under the stars ; the ineffable 
charm of the cool, delicious nights after the days of hot, 
scorching sunshine; the baths of glorious colour that 
flooded me, body, mind, and soul, in the sunrises and 
sunsets; the experiences in sand-storm, wind-storm, hail- 
storm, snow-storm, and lightning-storm; the envelop- 
ment of whirling sand-spirals; the excitements and dan- 
gers of fording the treacherous quicksands of the 
streams ; the bathing in their thick, ruddy, muddy waters ; 
the thrills of swimming across the Rio Grande, when it 



vi By Way of Foreword 

was at the flood and its banks were falling in with " vol- 
leying and thundering; " the narrow escapes from drown- 
ing in the wild waters ; the fording of refractory mules, 
horses and burros across its turbulent flood ; the discom- 
forts of being caught in storms and compelled to sleep 
out in the snow, or rain, or — worse still — the suffocat- 
ing clasp of the hot sand-storm; the near swallowing-up 
of our wagon in unsuspected beds of quicksand; the 
watching of the conversion of the dry, sandy desert, in a 
few hours, into a flooded area through which we plunged 
as through a marsh ; the seeing of a roaring torrent, with 
wild, dashing breakers, come down the dry washes that 
had appeared as if water had been strangers to their 
banks ever since the days of Noah's flood ; — memory re- 
counts them so rapidly that not only cannot the pen write 
them ; even the tongue trips and plays traitor to its wonted 
fluency when it attempts to recount the sights, scenes, ex- 
periences, and moving events that have transpired, and 
of which I have been part, in New Mexico during the past 
thirty years. I feel that I can truthfully say I have had 
a thrill, a deep emotion, a stirring of the heart, a quick- 
ening of the pulses, an intellectual enlargement, a scenic 
feast and a spiritual uplift for every one of the 122,503 
square miles of New Mexico. 

Think what that means ! 

If Philip James Bailey measured life aright when he 
wrote, 

We live in deeds, not years ; in thoughts, not breaths ; 
In feelings, not in figures on a dial. 

We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives, 
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best, 

then the thoughtful can imagine what New Mexico has 
meant, still means, to me. The peace, the rest, the com- 



By Way of Foreword 



vu 



fort, the joy, that have flowed into me, body and soul, 
on its mesas, and in its mountains, its canyons, and 
valleys, forests and deserts, among its historic scenes, and 
when fellowshipping with its Indians, its solitudes and its 
wild, rollicking cowboys. 

When I was so young in life's experiences that I felt 
there were such things as " fates that pursue," and life 
seemed a horrible nightmare, when men and women 
shunned me for that which I was not, I fled them and 
sought refuge in the solitudes of desert and canyon. 
There, often for weeks at a time, I saw no one but In- 
dians, or the birds and four-footed wild things that 
neither shunned me, nor were afraid of me. There I 
regained poise and that outlook on life that ultimately has 
brought peace, serenity and joy. Hence I love New 
Mexico with undying affection that those merely physi- 
cally born within her borders can never feel. For here 
my real spiritual birth occurred. 

Before, having ears I heard not ; eyes, I saw not. Now 
I hear, see, taste, feel and know, somewhat, and am On 
The Way to larger, fuller, wider experiences. 

Were I a poet-rhapsodist it would be no effort, nay, 
it would be a joy to compose a rhapsody of thanksgiving 
to this so-called Arid Land. No lover has sung the 
praises of his mistress with more exuberant enthusiasm 
than I could put, honestly and sincerely, into my song of 
New Mexico, 

To the average newspaper-reading American the name. 
New Mexico, brings up little more than thoughts of a 
disagreeable fight in Congress about two would-be states 
— itself and Arizona. They see President Roosevelt 
urging that they cease striving to be admitted as two 
states, and swinging his famous big stick in a vigorous 
endeavour to reunite them as they used to be in Spanish 



viii By Way of Foreword 

and Mexican days. He found he could as easily ac- 
complish this as he could unite oil and water, or Lloyd 
George combine into one coherent political state the 
Catholics and the Orangemen of Ireland. 

Yet if that average American would study New Mexico 
he would find it as I have done, a country of many sur- 
prises, wonders and delights. It is a land of sunshine, 
solitude, silence, serenity, saints, sinners, salubrity, sand, 
scoriae, scorpions, snakes, seduction, squabbles, segrega- 
tion, shame and sacrifice. It is a natural sanitarium, a 
land of sandy slopes and sapphire skies, a land for the 
savant and the saunterer, the serious and the saucy, a 
scenic saturnalia regna, a place where past, present and fu- 
ture are hand in hand, where antithesis reigns supreme, 
ancient and modern civilizations jog elbows, and where 
the present sits in the very lap of the prehistoric. It is a 
land where the religion of one class of the people mani- 
fested itself in " the Delight-makers," and of another in 
the " Penitentes; " — the former people whose sole duty 
as religionists was to make people laugh by their jokes, 
jests, and clownish acts; the latter a band of religious 
fanatics who whip themselves with cruel cactus-thongs 
until blood streams down their bodies. Both classes still 
exist in New Mexico to-day. It is a land of rich fertil- 
ity and of hopeless barrenness ; where irrigation has been 
practiced for centuries, even long before Columbus sailed 
from Spain on his voyage of discovery, and, on the other 
hand, of sandy plains, rocky mesas, lava-strewn areas 
where foothold even is denied to man. Here are snowy 
peaks which companion scintillant stars more vivid and 
larger than stars known east of the Rockies, and which 
rest on mountain shoulders richly clad in a marvelously 
varied silva, under whose shade silver streams dash and 
sing, splash and roar on their way to be lost in the 



By Way of Foreword ix 

deserts of the plain, where prickly mesquite and buck- 
brush, thorny yucca and cactus, and pale, bloodless ver- 
dure eagerly drink up such few drops as still remain. 

I have purposely given much space to the strange and 
superstitious life of the Indians and Mexicans of New 
Mexico, yet I would not thereby have the intelligent 
reader gain a wrong impression of the modern New 
Mexico. These things do exist, exactly as the many 
writers quoted, and I, myself, state. Yet they are not so 
obtrusive and insistent as to demand the attention of 
passing travelers. Indeed the converse is the rule. One 
might live in New Mexico for a score of years and 
never see them. They must be hunted for, waited and 
watched for, if one wishes to see them in their native 
simplicity. Even then, as I think I have shown clearly, 
not every person has the wit or tact to enable him to 
remain and witness what is about to transpire. While 
Albuquerque is but a few miles from villages where the 
Mexicans are penitentes, and believe in witchcraft, and a 
few score miles from Acoma, Zuni and Isleta, Indian 
villages where witches are hung and the strange kivna 
performances are still carried on, Albuquerque itself is as 
modern and progressive as Los Angeles, California; Day- 
ton, Ohio, or Marshalltown, Iowa. It is these surround- 
ing facts that give the piquancy, uniqueness, thrilling 
vividness of surprise and contrast to life in the modern 
cities of New Mexico. 

One with an artistic soul has called New Mexico — 
not inappropriately — the land of High Colours and 
High Places. While to the unknowing the colours of 
the paintings reproduced in this book may seem bizarre 
and exaggerated I must assert, in sober earnestness, that 
they no more than suggest the reality. Colours abound, 
radiate, vibrate, throb, delight, entrance, bewilder and 



By Way of Foreword 



confuse. Some who see them for the first time, become 
bewildered and confused, for, coming from the soft-toned 
east and middle west, they can scarce believe their own 
eyes. " Striking " is scarcely a forcible enough word. 
These colours sometimes almost stun one who is un- 
used to them, just as Wagner's, Strauss's, Brahms's, 
Rachmaninoff's or Dvorak's music at first stunned those 
who were wedded to the quieter, gentler forms. 

And the high places are equally fascinating and allur- 
ing. New Mexico is the land of lands for mesas, flat- 
topped mountains, and elevated plateaus. Off towards 
Arizona, in the northwest, are towering monuments 
and buttes, walls and castles, domes and turrets galore. 
The Navahos revel in them and, as we shall see, the 
Zunis and Acomas either live or used to live upon their 
level wind-swept areas. Black Mesa, on the Rio Grande, 
is historic, for here great battles were fought between 
Spaniard and Pueblo, and the Mesa Encantada — Kat- 
zimo — the Enchanted Mesa, has become famous the 
world over owing to the controversies that have raged 
about it. Tucumcari is named after a rocky mesa 
nearby, which used to be one of the retreating places 
of the Apaches. 

New Mexico has been a great land of controversy, a 
mental battle ground, where doughty champions of many 
kinds have fought, won, or been worsted in the defense 
of their ideas. A score of combatants have contended 
for their rendition of the route of Coronado ; almost as 
many have fought as to which " city " was the one of 
the " Seven Cities of Cibola " where Stephen the negro 
lost his life. We have argued, and possibly will con- 
tinue to argue, as to whether the Franciscans really bene- 
fited the Indians or not; and in recent numbers of Old 
Santa Fe hot and bitter controversy has raged over such 



By Way of Foreword xi 

questions as to whether the friars had complete bibles 
or not. To this day it is hard to tell whether General 
Carleton was efficient or not ; and who can sort out, from 
the mass of conflicting opinion, whether the Apaches and 
Navahos were " fiends incarnate " or " noble aborigines 
who have been fearfully wronged by the white man." 
The question is not settled yet as to whether the Texas 
Expedition to Santa Fe in 1841 was an unwarrantable 
and indefensible attempt to seize territory from a friendly 
republic, or an honest attempt to meet the wishes of many 
people of New Mexico who desired to sever their relation- 
ship with Mexico. Scores of pages have been written to 
prove that Cabeza de Vaca went into New Mexico, and 
that Santa Fe is the oldest city in the United States. 
Even the location of the room in El Palacio, in Santa Fe, 
in which Lew Wallace wrote Ben Hur has been a matter 
of controversy, and the loud words in the bitter discussion 
as to whether Katzimo, — the Enchanted Mesa, — was 
really the original home of the Acoma Indians still send 
their echoes throughout the land. Who doesn't know 
of the fierce controversies that have raged as to the origin 
and final disappearance of the Cliff-Dwellers, and to this 
day it is not settled whether we are justified in spelling 
Navaho with an h or a j. Even the names of the moun- 
tains have been the subject of controversy, and some of 
us call a certain mountain San Mateo, — a name given 
centuries ago, — while others call it Mt. Taylor, after the 
redoubtable president of that name, while those who be- 
lieve in retaining the original names given by the Indians, 
■would call it — it is impossible to write it — after the 
tongue of the Navaho. " Where is the Gran Quivera? " 
used to be a question that would speedily start a fight, and 
who owns the Sanctuario — the old Franciscan Mission 
at Chimayo where the marvelous happenings of Lourdes, 



xii By Way of Foreword 



in France, are said to be duplicated, — is still a question in 
the minds of many. Even the spelling of the name of the 
city of Albuquerque is a matter of controversy. The old 
records show that the name of the duke, after whom the 
city was named, had one " r " more than is now used, and 
wrote and spelled it Alburquerque — as does Editor 
Twitchell of the Old Santa Fe magazine and the best- 
posted historian of the state. 

To this day the Presbyterian, Methodist and Congre- 
gationalist will assert that the confessed illiteracy of the 
New Mexico of twenty, fifty and more years ago was 
owing to the Catholic priesthood's deliberate purpose to 
keep the people in ignorance, and the devout Catholic will 
heatedly resent the imputation and defy the imputator. 
As for the health fulness, salubrity, social advantages, 
business qualifications and the like of Santa Fe as against 
those of Albuquerque — it is a case of Frank Stockton's 
Lady and the Tiger, and the outsider, drawn into the 
argument, rejects one horn of the dilemma to be impaled 
immediately upon the other. 

And these are a few only of the controversies that have 
raged in New Mexico, and in some of which I have glee- 
fully had my part. It is contended by some that debate 
quickens the intellect — we know it oftentimes sharpens 
the temper — and if this be true then we might augur 
well for the intellectual future of the state. 

Few states in the Union show such marvelous con- 
trasts as does New Mexico. They are startling and dra- 
matic. For instance, one coming into the State on the 
Rock Island road and over the El Paso and South West- 
ern will ride for scores of miles over an elevated plateau 
country, almost devoid of verdure, heavily covered with 
snow in winter, and scorching in the fierce rays of the 
sun in summer. There are few vivifying brooks, creeks, 



By Way of Foreword xiii 

or rivers and little or no grateful shade of trees. Except 
for scant pasturage for cattle and sheep the land seems 
useless, and many a passenger exclaims " God-forsaken ! " 
and, pulling down the car-shades, seeks forgetfulness and 
the more rapid passing of time in sleep. 

On the other hand, many prominent and leading artists 
of the American world find in Taos and its environment 
one of the most beautiful of spots, richly alluring and 
satisfying. 

Entering from the northeast on the Santa Fe an en- 
tirely different country is seen. One crosses the well- 
wooded Raton Mountains before he descends to the 
plains, A somewhat similar experience is had in coming 
over the Denver and Rio Grande from Colorado, while 
in the south coming from the west, the El Paso and South 
Western and Southern Pacific have an entirely different 
kind of desert country to reveal. North of El Paso, out 
westward from Alamogordo, are miles and miles of 
gypsum sand, which, in the brilliant sunlight, appears ex- 
actly like snow ; while out from Laguna, by McCarthy's, 
and Bluewater, in the region of Mount San Mateo, and 
south from Grants for miles, lie the forbidding lava-beds 
that look like the spewings of some fiery region of black 
despair. 

As early as 1880 Bandelier affirmed the superior ad- 
vantages of New Mexico as a field for archaeological 
and ethnological study. He said : 

It is the only region on the whole continent where the highest 
type of culture obtained by its aborigines — the village community in 
stone or adobe buildings — has been preserved on the respective ter- 
ritories of the tribes. These tribes have shrunk, the purity of their 
stock has been affected, their customs and beliefs encroached upon by 
civilization. Still enough is left to make of New Mexico the ob- 
jective point of serious, practical archaeologists; for, besides the 
living Pueblo Indians, besides the numerous ruins of their past, the 



xiv By Way of Foreword 

very history of the changes that they have undergone is partly in 
existence, and begins three hundred and forty years ago, with 
Coronado's adventurous march. 

There is no attempt in this volume to give a complete 
history of New Mexico. That were too extensive an 
undertaking and the field is already well occupied. My 
purpose is to give in readable guise a broad and general 
idea of the State as a whole, or, at least, of its more im- 
portant and arresting features. 

I have desired to suggest to the interested reader the 
great importance New Mexico had in the development of 
the Pacific States. Arizona and California, originally, 
were merely side issues connected with this, the main ob- 
ject of the explorer's attention. 

The history of New Mexico is the history of the be- 
ginning of civilization in the western part of the United 
States. It is of such vast importance that two large vol- 
umes are required merely to catalogue its Spanish Ar- 
chives. For, as its name implies, it was regarded as a 
new Mexico, and Coronado and his conquistadores fondly 
hoped to find therein the gold, silver and precious things 
that had enriched Cortes in Mexico, Pizzaro in Peru, and 
dazzled the old world. 

How strangely small, insignificant and even absurd are 
the things that lure men to change the course of history. 
It was a myth, a will-o'-the-wisp, that allured Coronado 
to the exploration of New Mexico, — a mere crazy tale 
that rumour had set afoot years before ; just such a ru- 
mour as sends men to-day speeding hither and yonder to 
find gold. Mexico and Peru were the " Klondikes " that 
had dazzled the eyes of all Europe by their prodigal and 
fabulous wealth. The stories that spread over Spain, 
Mexico and elsewhere about the tons of golden and silver 
vessels, the abundance of precious stones, etc., of Monte- 



By Way of Foreword xv 



zuma and the Incas made men crazy with cupidity and 
they were ready and eager to fly in any direction that 
suggested a duplication of the experiences of the envied 
Cortes and Pizarro. 

The myth that started the explorers into New Mexico 
was that " somewhere " up in that region where the buf- 
falo roamed were seven cities, richer in gold and all that 
man lusted after than anything that had yet been dis- 
covered. The report of Marcos de Nizza, who was sent 
out to verify the rumours by Mendoza, the Viceroy, who 
hoped to outdo Cortes in his discoveries, did not lessen the 
excitement. The soap-bubble was still growing, still daz- 
zling with its brilliant iridescence. It was Coronado's 
expedition that pricked it and its disappearance into thin 
air was so startlingly rapid that it took the Spaniards 
years to get over it. It practically killed Coronado for it 
may truthfully be said he died of a broken heart, a dis- 
illusioned, disappointed man. 

All that the Spaniards found were seven Indian pueblos 
— villages built of ^dobe, or rude pieces of rock plastered 
over with adobe — whose people lived in aboriginal sim- 
plicity, who had neither gold, silver, precious stones, nor 
anything of great value. They knew nothing of mining, 
though they had picked up a little turquoise, and a few 
garnets and peridots. 

Refusing to believe that his bubble had burst and dis- 
appeared so utterly, Coronado pushed his way into Kan- 
sas. There, convinced against his will, he turned back, 
and at that moment to the great world of endeavour he 
practically died. 

Myths of fabulous treasure, however, die hard, and in 
the hope that the country would still justify the first 
stories told of it later explorers came — again to be dis- 
appointed. A new element, by now, began to assert itself. 



XVI 



By Way of Foreword 



This was an age of religious zeal and activity never be- 
fore or since surpassed. The monkish orders of Spain 
were as frenzied in their zeal to save the souls of the 
heathen aborigines as the explorers were to get gold. 
Hence with all bands of the latter that started out on their 
gold hunts came friars — Franciscan, Jesuit, Carmelite, 
Dominican — eager to gain the priceless reward of the 
spirit, ambitious to win the approval of their God by lead- 
ing the souls of the natives into the fold of the church. 
Then began another invasion — that of the mission- 
aries. Churches, convents, monasteries sprang up like 
magic on every hand. The fervour of these men seems 
incredible. Eager to become martyrs they dared death 
daily by forcing their religion upon jealous natives, and 
such was their fiery energy and dauntless courage that 
they succeeded in convincing the Indians — against their 
will and desire — that they must help build the temples 
of worship desired by the newcomers. This was the 
period when the Mission Churches of New Mexico arose, 
lOO to 150 years earlier than those of California. Simul- 
taneously villas or towns were started — San Gabriel, 
Santa Fe, Albuquerque, — for the Spanish and Mexican 
colonists, who still clung to the old tradition or myth and 
fondly hoped they might find the wealth their predecessors 
doubtless had overlooked. Between them — friars and 
colonists — they succeeded in arousing in the hearts of 
the Indians a hatred so intense, fiery and unsuppressible 
that the Pueblo Rebellion of 1680 ensued and violent 
death stalked through the land. On that dread day of 
Santana, 1680, the Indians, led by the zealous patriot, 
Pope, arose almost to a man — and woman, for the 
women shared in this bitter hatred — and fell upon every 
" long-gown," every white man and woman they could 
reach. 



By Way of Foreword xvii 

Scores were slain, Santa Fe was besieged and Governor 
Otermin, with a band of clinging, terrified refugees, fear- 
fully fled down the Rio Grande to near where El Paso 
now stands and breathlessly waited for help. 

It came in time, and under Diego de Vargas the In- 
dians were first cajoled and then whipped into submis- 
sion. From that time, until the Mexicans asserted their 
independence, the Pueblos of New Mexico were regarded 
as loyal to Spain — lukewarm, perhaps, yet not actively 
hostile, transferring their allegiance in perfunctory fash- 
ion to the republic of Mexico, and, on the arrival of 
Kearny, in 1846, to the United States. 

It must be noted, however, that there were other In- 
dians, besides the Pueblos, such as the Apaches and 
Navahos, who were not inclined to accept the sovereignty 
of Spain, and who looked with a greater or lesser degree 
of contempt and scorn upon all attempts of the friars to 
change their religion. Their attitude plainly was that of 
the more modern skeptic who, on being informed that 
unless he believed what the church taught, would as- 
suredly be damned, promptly replied that " he would be 
damned if he did." They were insolent, defiant, incor- 
rigible and unconquerable. Missionaries and colonists 
had brought into the land horses, cows, sheep and innu- 
merable seeds for fruit trees, vegetables and grains. 
With a speedy appreciation of the value of the former 
these wily nomads began to levy unauthorized contribu- 
tions upon the flocks and herds of the colonists and those 
of the Indians who had become Christianized and counted 
as " the faithful." A state of perpetual war, therefore, 
might be said to exist, the Apaches, Navahos and a few 
of the tribes swooping down upon the Spaniards and 
Mexicans and their possessions, in season and out, and 
being in turn slain singly or massacred in droves, when- 



xviii By Way of Foreword 

ever the tide of fortune turned in favour of the whites. 

It was during these fighting days that the Navaho 
woman learned the art of blanket-weaving — which she 
had always known in a very crude and primitive fashion 
— with the wool from the sheep of the Spaniard, and 
to this fact, combined with the Navaho man's discovery 
that roast sheep and ox were more satisfying than the 
flesh of rabbits and the like, is undoubtedly owing most 
of the depredations committed by the nomad Indians 
upon the Mexicans. 

In these conflicts considerable skill and generalship 
often were displayed, and thus came into existence a mass 
of stories, told with great gusto around the herders' and 
cowboys' campfires, and before the open fire-places of the 
Mexican homes, of deeds daring and thrilling, of narrow 
escapes and bloody achievements, of which later writers 
have made good use. 

In these Spanish and Mexican days, too, great grants 
of land were given to Americans and other foreigners as 
well as those who used the Castilian speech (pure or other- 
wise). These were afterwards the subject of much 
harassing legislation, mainly because of a misunderstand- 
ing as to the reasons, etc., the real motive, behind the 
grants. It is well that this motive be understood, for, 
while it was just, potent, and reasonable in that day, it 
does not exist in ours, and, therefore, many wise people 
of to-day argue it never did exist. 

No intelligent reader of history can forget that when 
the Spaniards took New Mexico land was of little value. 
They had found a new world many scores of times larger 
than the whole of that part of the old world claimed by 
them. They could neither use nor protect it. Two hun- 
dred years later when the Mexicans drove out the Span- 
iards the new owners were confronted with the same 



By Way of Foreword xix 

problems. They wanted to retain some kind of hold upon 
it, yet foes without caused fears within, especially as 
there were foes within as well as without. Land, par- 
ticularly when it was upon the Mexican frontier adjoin- 
ing territory of the United States, was always adjudged 
insecure. The Mexicans knew the land-grabbing, coun- 
try-swallowing habits of the aggressive Anglo-Saxon, 
hence they felt that if, by granting such land to men who 
would use and hold it against all comers, they would not 
only retain their sovereignty over the land, but would 
place an effective buffer between themselves and a people 
whom they strongly mistrusted. Then, too, Navahos, 
Apaches, Utes, Comanches and others, were ever war- 
ring upon them, and it was a help and a comfort to feel 
that some redoubtable Indian fighter was at hand to arrest 
these aggressions and occasionally " take a rise " out of 
the aggressors. It can be seen, therefore, that it was a 
wise policy on the part of the Mexican Government to 
make these grants. They led to the founding of colonies, 
to the extension of the boundaries of civilization, and set 
up barriers against the inroads of the savages and the 
encroachments of their enterprising and active neighbours 
across the border. What to them meant a few acres, a 
few thousands, a few hundreds of thousands of acres, of 
land ? They were glad to give it to any in whose loyalty 
and courage they had belief that they would help to hold 
it. And, when the Mexican Government ceded New 
Mexico and Cahfornia to the United States, it must never 
be forgotten, as Frank Springer eloquently and forcefully 
argued before the United States Supreme Court, that the 
Mexican Government expressly stipulated that its previ- 
ous grants of land should be acknowledged and protected. 
Of course the seizing of the country by General Stephen 
Kearny, in 1846, caused considerable excitement, though 



XX By Way of Foreword 

there was practically little bloodshed consequent upon the 
act. Kearny's arrest of Fremont, later, in California, 
produced an immensely greater ripple in American 
thought than did the annexation of the whole of New 
Mexico (including what is now Arizona). 

In one of the chapters I have endeavoured to show what 
a wonderful " playground " New Mexico is for the 
United States. But I have merely touched the high lights 
of the subject, as will be apparent to all who know the 
country. Yet I cannot too strongly commend this phase 
of the subject to those who are looking for change, to 
whom doctors say : " Travel ; go somewhere for a 
change." There is no place in the world that will better 
repay a serious visit of a few months spent in wandering 
up and down its square miles. For what is change of 
air, change of scene, change of work? Few people ana- 
lyze the reason why these changes are so beneficial. Is 
it not that they bring a change of thought, of mental atti- 
tude, of outlook? The man whose every moment has 
been devoted to his business, his clerks, his store, his 
office, his factory, his mill, is now away from them. He 
sees birds and bees, buds and blossoms, mountains and 
canyons, rushing, roaring rivers, tuneful cataracts, dash- 
ing sprays, whirling rapids, fleecy clouds in the bluest of 
blue skies, men and women tramping — hiking they now 
call it — up trails, or riding horse- or burro-back for far- 
away mountain peaks. He is out in the sun, in the fresh 
air. He puts on his old clothes, or a suit of khaki bought 
for the occasion, and feels the freedom of a soft shirt, 
and of a collar that has none of the compression of a 
harness. He goes out bareheaded, and becomes as brown 
as a berry, new muscles come into play; he breathes 
deeper than he has done for years. At first it makes him 
dizzy, and tired, but he eats like a hired man and sleeps 



By Way of Foreword ^ 

like a baby, rolls in the dirt like a tramp and looks as 
healthy and rugged as a hobo. His brain becomes clearer 
and he thinks better. He loses his headache and back- 
ache, and that old stomach trouble that has worried him 
for years disappears. His liver no longer gives him 
twinges and those stiff joints begin to work easier. 

He drinks the pure mountain water by the gallon, and 
that yellow tinge in the eyes and on his skin disappears. 
His breath becomes pure; he no longer wakes up in the 
morning with a dark brown taste in his mouth, and his 
friends, seeing him walk, comment on his rejuvenated 
appearance. 

These, and more, far more, are the physical changes 
discernible and apparent in him as a month is passed 
by, and the longer he stays the better he feels. 

But these changes are by no means the most important. 
His mind becomes as clarified with the scrubbing of the 
scenery, as his lungs do with the pure air. His sensi- 
bilities tingle and dance with the invigoration of the 
scenic tonics as his blood dances with the increased sup- 
ply of oxygen. His whole mentality becomes saner, more 
controlled, less under the dominion of things outside of 
him, just as his nerves have come under his own control. 
New and vivid mental impressions of joy, of health, of 
vigour, of vim fill his hours with optimism; his whole 
inner nature is stirred, moved, refreshed, shaken-up, re- 
stored. With Edwin Markham he shouts in exuberant 
joy: 

I ride on mountain tops, I ride; 

I have found my life and am satisfied. 

No one knows better than I the inadequacy of my 
sketchy picturing of this great State in all its alluring 
phases. If, however, I can lead a few people of intelli- 



XXll 



By Way of Foreword 



gence each year to break loose from the traditional and 
conventional routes of travel and give themselves the 
joy of roughing it in New Mexico, I shall receive such 
gratitude from them — even though it be only by wire- 
less — that I shall be fully satisfied. 




Pasadena, California, 1920. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 

I. 
11. 

III. 

IV. 
V. 

VI. 

* VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XL 

^' XII. 

XIII. 

XIV. 

XV. 
XVI. 



XVII. 

XVIII. 

XIX. 

XX. 

XXI. 



By Way of Foreword . 

Why " The Land of the Delight 

Makers" 

The Explorations and Subjugations of 

New Mexico .... 
The Homeric Epic of New Mexico 
The Great Pueblo Rebellion of 1680 
The World's Greatest Autograph Al 

BUM, Inscription Rock 
My Adventures at Zuni 
Among the Witches ... 
Hunting with Indians in New Mexico 
AcoMA, THE City of the Cliffs . 
Katzimo — The Enchanted Mesa 
The Arts and Industries of the Indians 
The Religion of the Indians 
Indian Songs and Music 
The Native Architecture of New 

Mexico ..... 
The Pueblo of Taos . 
The Antiquities of New Mexico. Its 

Ancient Dwellings — Its Mission 

Churches . . . . . 

The American Passion Play 
The Mountains of New Mexico . 
The National Forests of New Mexico 
The Bird Life of New Mexico . 
The Flora of New Mexico . 
xxiii 



PAGE 
V 



20 
24 

34 

51 

80 

98 

124 

178 

186 

195 

220 

244 

257 

266 
269 
302 
322 

334 
340 



XXIV 



Contents 



CHAPTER 

XXII. The Influence of New Mexico upon 
Literature .... 

XXIII. The Influence of New Mexico upon 

Art : The Taos Society of Artists 

XXIV. Ancient and Modern Methods of See- 

ing New Mexico 
XXV. New Mexico as the Nation's Play 
ground ..... 
XXVI. Education in New Mexico . 
XXVII. The University and Special Schools of 

New Mexico .... 
XXVIII. The Art Museum of Santa Fe 
XXIX. Irrigation in New Mexico . 
XXX. Albuquerque, The Commercial Metrof 

OLis of New Mexico . 
XXXI. The Population of New Mexico . 
Bibliography .... 
Index ..... 



347 
373 
403 

409 
414 

421 
428 
444 

450 
458 
461 

463 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 

The Water Maiden at Laguna (In full color). 

(See page 400) .... Frontispiece ^ 

The Pueblo of Isleta . . . . . . xi ^ 

MAP OF NEW MEXICO \ ^ 

A Carlsbad Home . , . . . . 5 ^ 
The Old Franciscan Mission at the Pueblo of 

ZiA (In full color) . . . . . . 16 '^ 

The Old Mexican Ovens at San Lorenzo , . 31 ^ 
El Morro — Inscription Rock . . . .34 

The Pueblo of Zuni from across the River . . 56 
Man and Boy, Zuni ...... 59 

We-wha, the remarkable Zuni character who 

visited President Cleveland . . . • 63 ,, 
We-wha at the Grinding Trough in her house 

AT Zuni ........ 64 

Zuni Dick and his Brother making shell bead 

necklaces . . ^ . . . . 68 

The Pillars known as " The Caique's Son and 

Daughter," on Taiyoallane, near Zuni . .72 
Zuni Nick, soon after he was tried as a Wizard 86 • 
Melita, the day after she was rescued from 

Hanging as a witch ..... 92 

Pueblo Indian, with throwing stick, ready for a 

Rabbit Hunt . . . . . . . 98 '^ 

From the author's Collection of We-ma-he, or 

Prey Fetiches . . . . . . .110 

The New Mexico Desert Region in Winter (In 

full color) . . . . . . -113 

XXV 



XXVI 



List of Illustrations 



The Cliffs of Acoma, showing the Old Francis 

CAN Mission ..... 
A Street in Acoma .... 
The Governor of Lacuna . 
Interior of the Old Franciscan Mission at Acoma 
The Pueblo of Lacuna 
Dance at the Fiesta de San Esteban at Acoma 

(In full color) ..... 
Katzimo, or The Enchanted Mesa, from the 

North ...... 

Pueblo Indians Making Pottery 

Pahos, or Prayer Sticks 

Manuelito, the Last Great Navaho Chief 

Preparing for a Dance, Zuni 

A Dance at Lacuna .... 

The Old Mission Church at Zuni 

The Mission Church at Cochiti, before, and 

after, " Restoration " . . . . 
" Christ on the Cross," in the Morada at Taos 
The Penitente Cross at San Mateo . 
The Self-whipping of the New Mexico Peni 

tentes (In full color) .... 

The Author attempting to carry a typical Peni 

tente Cross ..... 
TheCarreta delMuerto i^sed by the Penitentes 

AT Taos ...... 

A Summer Camp in the Santa Fe National Forest 
San Mateo Mountain — also called Mt. Taylor 
Bear Canyon, in the Sandias .... 

A Goat Ranch in the Lincoln National Forest 

Santa Fe Lake, Santa Fe National Forest 

A New Mexico Wild Turkey 

The Guardian of the Desert (In full color) 

Palo Verde — Mesquite — Desert Flora 

A New Mexico " Vocalist " . 

The " Ocatillo " .... 



126 ' 

130 

137 

154 
160 

170 ' 

178 
192 • 
207 / 
214 , 
225 . 
239 
245 

250 
262 / 

274 , 

2S2 
288 

292 

307 
310 

318 
328 

332 
335 
340 
344 
368 

394 



List of Illustrations xxvii 



The Sentinels of the Desert — The Mirage — 

The Snowy Range ..... 
The Pepper Stringers (In full color) 
A Pueblo Indian Funeral Procession at Isleta 400 



Quaken Aspen Grove, Cloudcroft 

Indian School, Laguna .... 

"The Cathedral of the Desert": Museum and 

Auditorium, Santa Fe (In full color) 
Elephant Butte Dam ..... 
Section of the Main Canal, Carlsbad Project 
Church of San Felipe de Neri 



PAGE 

399 



412 
418 

428 
446 
448 
453 



An Albuquerque Residential Street . . ., 456 



n 



1 



NEW MEXICO, THE LAND OF 
THE DELIGHT MAKERS 



CHAPTER I 

WHY " THE LAND OF THE DELIGHT MAKERS " 

To rightly choose a title for any book is generally a 
work of difficulty, of much earnest search and deep cogi- 
tation. Yet in this case the title came readily. One of 
the most fascinating books ever written by a deeply seri- 
ous student of Archaeology is the novel of Adolf Bande- 
lier — The Delight Makers. In it he builds up for us, — 
from his intimate knowledge of the documentary history, 
the wealth of gathered tradition, and his familiarity with 
the life of their immediate descendants, — the social, re- 
ligious, and tribal life of the prehistoric cliff-dwellers, the 
Tyuonyi — that strange race, which much conjecture and 
guesswork has involved in clouds of deep and impene- 
trable mystery. Known to the Spanish population as the 
Rito do los Frijoles, it was left for Bandelier to discover 
to the world the wealth of cliff-dwellings its canyon walls 
contained. They are now visited annually by thousands. 
To teach the unscientific world the significance of these 
cliff-dwellings was Bandelier's intense desire, and to ac- 
complish this he hit upon the plan of the popular novel. 
Doubtless had he been alive to-day he would have been 

" unscientific " enough — in the profundity of his insight 

1 



2 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

into human nature — to use " movies " for the same pur- 
pose. Here is his own statement : 

I was prompted to perform the work by a conviction that, however 
scientific works may tell the truth about the Indians they exercise 
always a limited influence upon the general public; and to that 
public, in our country as well as abroad the Indian has remained as 
good as unknown. By clothing sober facts in the garb of romance, I 
have hoped to make the " Truth about the Pueblo Indians " more 
accessible and perhaps more acceptable to the public in general. 

He called his novel The Delight Makers from the 
clowns who performed their antics and buffoonery for 
the delectation of the prehistoric dwellers in the cliffs. 
These delight-makers were of the oldest inhabitants, but, 
also, they were prophetic of the later comers to New 
Mexico, and more particularly of the land itself. Hun- 
dreds of thousands of students of the life of the past have 
visited, and will visit. New Mexico because of its wealth 
of archcrologic and ethnologic material. Those who are 
interested in the home-building Pueblo Indians, their 
quaint legends, their pathetic struggles to retain their an- 
cient religion, their slow demoralization by contact with 
the whites, will go in ever increasing numbers to their 
New Mexico homes so long as a spark of the ancient 
civilization and a handful of its representatives remain. 
While scenically New Mexico lost its most wonderful part 
when Arizona was sliced from its western side, it still 
retains enough to be a peculiar wonderland within itself. 
Acoma is still the incomparable cliff-home of the sky; 
Zuni, with its Thunder Mountain, and its archaic people, 
the lodestone to the seeker after the quaint and curious, 
as well as the picturesque and sublime. No lava-fields in 
the world can surpass those viewed from the summit of 
Mt. San Mateo and the cliffs of Cibolleta. There is but 
one Inscription Rock in the world. The Navaho Indians 



" The Land of the DeUght Makers " 3 

are equally interesting with any other tribe in existence 
and their Fire Dance, their Ship-Rock, Canyon de Chelly, 
and a thousand and one scenic spots on their reservation 
await the coming of the hundreds of thousands who will 
ultimately visit them. The Pueblos of the Rio Grande 
still stand to excite the imagination of other visitors as 
they did that of Marah Ellis Ryan, who there wrote her 
Flute of the Gods. The old Spanish palace and the Mis- 
sion Church of San Miguel, in Santa Fe, remain, with 
their stories of the Pueblo uprising of 1680, and Ben Hur 
and Lew Wallace. Taos, with its great community 
houses, still remains the northernmost outpost to which 
Pueblo Indian civilization reached. The Enchanted 
Mesa — Katzimo — still stands in the pure blue of the 
New Mexico sky, luring visitors to seek to gain its sum- 
mit as did Professor William Libbey, of Princeton, and 
wage a wordy war about it as did the climber and the 
redoubtable Teuton of Western Letters — Lummis — as 
to whether it was really the home of the ancient Acoma. 
Villegra's epic poem, giving the history in Spanish verse 
of the conquest of the cliff-city of Acoma by Zaldivar, 
will still thrill thousands — hundreds of thousands — as 
the years go by, with its vivid word pictures of the dread- 
ful fight on the penyol height. The penitentes still exist 
and in their moradas perform those strange rites that re- 
call the days of our Lord's passion, and then come out 
into the open, and upon their small Calvarios, reenact the 
scene of the dire tragedy of Calvary of two thousand 
years ago, after flagellating themselves until blood 
streams down their lacerated backs. The Spanish Mis- 
sion churches of New Mexico still remain, some of them 
one hundred and fifty years older than those of Califor- 
nia, and while not so pleasing and striking architecturally, 
they confessedly possess far more historic interest. 



4 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

And so I might ramble on by the hour, just as the 
whim seizes, recalHng the delight-making reminiscences 
that occur as I think casually of the New Mexico over 
which I have traveled in the past thirty-odd years. And 
I would not ignore the lure of its invigorating climate that 
invites to the health fulness of the open-air life and gives 
back vigour and strength to the hundreds of thousands 
who have lost them in their mad and pathetic chase for 
wealth, or a livelihood, in the crowded cities of the East 
and Middle West. Its sunshiny, pure atmosphered, for- 
est-sloped area brings delight in that it aids materially in 
restoring the weak, anemic, and sick to vigorous health. 
The conditions invite one into the open. Individually 
they call also in vivid chorus and orchestra, but all with 
the same theme : " Come out into the open ! Let us fill 
your lungs with the purest of sun-laden, balsam-charged 
air. Let us induce you to walk, to exercise, to ride, to 
golf, to motor, to row, to swim, to climb, and thus brush 
the cobwebs from the brains and muscles, strengthen the 
body, vivify and quicken the legs, and, better than all, 
free the spirit, and give new life, vim, ambition, activity 
to the will ! " For this is what New Mexico actually 
does to the health-seeker, and thus fills him with the new 
delight of joyous, happy, exuberant living. Under such 
conditions despondency is put to rout, the blue devils are 
slain, gloom and despair are unknown, and even the con- 
firmed hypochondriac becomes infected with radiant joy, 
and laughs, " and sings, and shouts in the fields about," 
while he totally forgets his imaginary wrongs and ills. 

Then it has ever been a delight to the stock man. New 
Mexico, with its immense mountain ranges, long sloping 
foothills and vast grazing areas, seemed especially adapted 
for cattle, and from Raton to Gallup, Taos to Deming, 
it is known the United States over as one of the largest 



'' The Land of the Delight Makers *' 5 

beef-producing States of the Union. Sheep, too, and 
goats, are the chosen stock not only of Navahos and 
Mexicans — who own them in herds of many hundreds, 
and even thousands — but of many shrewd white men 
who have amassed large fortunes from their wool, mut- 
ton, and pelts. 

If money-producing mines cause delight then New 
Mexico is a delight maker in this field, for it has been 
rich in productive mines ever since the days when Espejo 
and his men discovered valuable ores and found the In- 
dians well versed in the art of mining turquoise. In Soc- 
corro County is its State School of Mines, and on the 
Santa Fe sidings at Gallup hundreds of carloads of coal, 
just mined, can be seen, about to be hauled to California 
and other Western points, and as far east as Kansas. 

Is there any limit to the delight experienced by the 
farmer who sees barren and arid land subject to the vivi- 
fying influence of water, secured by judicious conserva- 
tion of the flood streams, or by tapping the inexhaustible 
underground flow of hitherto unknown sources ? Deming 
and its surrounding Mimbres Valley, in two or three dec- 
ades, has built up from nothing to a thriving city of 
4,000 inhabitants, and a region smiling with fertility and 
dotted with the homes of a healthy and prosperous and 
happy people. Below Elephant Butte dam, like a giant 
link of sausages, lie the fertile areas of Palomas, Rincon, 
the upper and lower Mesilla, and the El Paso Valleys, all 
of them brought into wonderful productiveness by the 
conservation of the hitherto untamed Rio Grande. On 
the Pecos River, too, the United States Reclamation en- 
gineers have expended their intellect and energy in con- 
trolling the flood waters and diverting them to lands of 
great promise, and the cities of Roswell and Carlsbad 
and their thriving environs loudly assert that New Mexico 



6 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

is still a land for the making of delight by means of agri- 
culture. 

And the reclaiming processes go on sometimes without 
the discovery of new, or the control of the wild, sources 
of water for irrigation. The people of New Mexico in 
some regions, especially the Estancia Valley, are watch- 
ing their bank accounts become actually plethoric because 
of their discovery that beans grow prolifically in their 
hitherto slowly developing regions. " Bean festivals " 
are becoming growingly more popular in the State, and I 
can vouch that the delight manifested on the faces and in 
the demeanour of residents and visitors alike has never 
been surpassed by the world-famed bean-eaters of the 
far-away East, though their beans are accompanied by 
noted brands of brown bread and culture. 

Finally, as one reads the chapter on the influence of 
New Mexico upon literature and art, it will be seen how 
great has been the delight produced in artist and author 
by this land of wonder and fascination. Taos, for half 
a century, has attracted its artists and to-day boasts a 
large and growing colony whose pictures are recognized 
as belonging to the noted art productions of America. 
Santa Fe has become a noted Literary Colony. Here 
Bandelier produced some of his greatest work; in its an- 
cient Palacio General Lew Wallace wrote part of his 
Ben Hiir. Here Davis gained much of the material for 
his El Gringo and Spanish Conquest, and Lummis stored 
his mind with history and romance which he afterwards 
put into his Land of Poco Tiempo, Spanish Pioneers, 
and two volumes of fascinating short stories. It is also 
the home of the first real field-school of American Archae- 
ology in America. Indeed it can confidently be affirmed 
that without New Mexico there would be no accepted 
Science of American Archaeology to the outside world. 



" The Land of the Delight Makers " 7 

Hence, for these and many other reasons that will occur 
to those familiar with the land, it will be seen that we owe 
much to Bandelier for the use of his happy phrase, " the 
Land of the Delight-Makers." 



CHAPTER II 

THE EXPLORATIONS AND SUBJUGATIONS OF NEW MEXICO 

The transcontinental journey of Cabeza de Vaca, 
after the destruction of the ill-fated expedition of Pam- 
philo de Narvaez, is well known. And so, also, is the 
memorable journey of Coronado, when Zuni, Acoma, the 
Hopi pueblos, those of the Rio Grande and the Grand 
Canyon of the Colorado River were discovered and de- 
scribed for the first time; also his expedition which 
reached out as far as Wichita, Kansas. 

The failure of Coronado's expedition withheld further 
exploration for four decades, though the frontier of Mex- 
ican settlement was being constantly thrust forward and 
nearer by explorers, missionaries, miners, cattlemen and 
the military. Reports of the large settlements of the 
Pueblos were coming in all the time and they did not 
minify the cotton fields and the wealth of the food sup- 
ply of the Indians. In 158 1, on June 5, an expedition left 
Santa Barbara, Mexico, comprising three friars, nine 
soldiers and about sixteen Indian servants. The organ- 
izer of the party was Fray Augustin Rodriguez, and the 
commander of the soldiers was Francisco Sanchez, com- 
monly called Chamuscado. These people reached Acoma 
and two of the missionaries remained in the country. 
The other one. Fray Santa Maria, who had decided to 
go back alone, was murdered in a few days by Indians. 
The reports of this expedition excited the people of New 
Spain, and led to the final subjugation of New Mexico by 

Juan de Onate. 

8 



The Explorations of New Mexico 9 

But in the meantime the Franciscans were active on 
behalf of their brethren who were out among the savages 
of this Httle-known land. In their anxiety they organized 
an expedition, that had their interests first of all at heart, 
led by Fray Bernaldino Beltran. This was financed by a 
wealthy citizen of Mexico, Antonio de Espejo, and late 
in 1582, with an equipment of a hundred and fifteen 
horses and mules, it started north. When the party 
reached the Tiguas they learned of the death of all the 
missionaries. Thus the avowed purpose of the expedi- 
tion was gained, yet both Father Beltran and Espejo 
deemed the opportunity to explore further too good to be 
lost, so they wandered about, visiting various pueblos, 
hunting for a reported lake of gold — which, of course, 
they did not find, — receiving a present of four thousand 
cotton blankets from the Hopi, and doing considerable 
prospecting for mines in western Arizona. Father 
Beltran then returned to New Spain but Espejo turned 
east until the hostility of the Tanos Pueblos, who would 
neither admit him nor give him food, led him to with- 
draw. 

The various reports of this expedition added fuel to 
the fires long raging in the minds of the Spanish-Mexican 
gold hunters, and as Espejo certainly did find some rich 
ores, it was not long before determined efforts were being 
made by several aspirants to secure from the viceroy the 
necessary license for starting out on a glorious career of 
conquest and the accumulation of wealth. It must here 
be recalled that no citizen of Spain was allowed to start 
out unauthorized even in the exploration of a new coun- 
try. The creatures we call kings were very jealous of 
their prerogatives, one of which was that they, by the 
favour of Almighty God, owned all the undiscovered and 
unexplored countries, and that they alone had the right 



10 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

and power to confer upon whomsoever they condescended 
to honour by their favour the high privilege of spending 
their own money and risking their own lives in making the 
needful explorations and conquests. Hence the viceroy 
was besieged by requests for licenses. In the meantime 
two rascally pirates — according to kingly standards — 
started out on an unauthorized expedition, and spent 
about a year visiting the Pueblos and going well into the 
Buffalo Country. One of them, Humano, murdered the 
other, Levya, and was himself murdered in turn by the 
Indians. 

Then, in 1595, the final decision was made, and out 
of all the aspirants for the honour Juan de Ofiate was 
chosen. Here " influence " doubtless had its " pull," for 
Ofiate was not only wealthy, but his wife was the grand- 
daughter of Cortes, and the great-granddaughter of Mon- 
tezuma. Possibly superstition had its share in the 
" pull," for what powers could resist one who was so close 
to the great Cortes ? 

There was not quite as much fanfare of trumpets and 
pomp of circumstance on the starting out of Ofiate as 
there was when Coronado set forth, but the expedition 
was one to command respectful attention. There were 
four hundred men, of whom one hundred and thirty had 
their families along. Eighty-three wagons and carts car- 
ried the baggage, and a herd of more than 7,000 head of 
stock was driven on foot. Father Martinez, of the Fran- 
ciscans, with a band of his fellow friars, was in charge 
of the spiritual interests. 

It must have been an impressive procession that passed 
through the streets of the last Mexican city, and what 
high hopes were centered around it ! After getting well 
advanced on their journey Ofiate, with sixty men, went 
ahead, and on July 7, 1598, received the submission of 



The Explorations of New Mexico 11 

the Indian chiefs of seven " provinces " at Santo Do- 
mingo and four days later, July 1 1 , reached the pueblos 
of Caypa, where he determined to establish his head- 
quarters. He christened the place San Juan de los Cabal- 
leros. This was the first town started in New Mexico 
by the Spaniards. Its location to-day is known as Cha- 
mita. A month later fifteen hundred Indians were work- 
ing with the Spaniards on an irrigating ditch which Ofiate 
was putting in for " the city of San Francisco." On Au- 
gust 23 a church was begun and its completion was cele- 
brated on September 8. Then, on September 9, after a 
great celebration the day before, a general assembly was 
held, rods of office were given to the chiefs of the various 
pueblos, the missionaries allotted to their respective sta- 
tions and the conquest of New Mexico declared to be 
complete. 

Ofiate now began to reach out. He sent one of his 
captains, Vicente de Zaldivar, eastward, to explore the 
Buffalo Country, while he himself visited Zuni, discov- 
ered the great salt deposits, and thence went to the Hopi 
country, intending to continue traveling until he came 
to the South Sea where he hoped to find great wealth in 
pearls. 

In November, Juan de Zaldivar, Vicente's brother, 
started west to join Oiiate, but, as is recorded in the chap- 
ter on Acoma, he was slain at that pueblo, and Vicente 
went to punish the murderers, which he did most effec- 
tively. After this he went westward with twenty-five 
companions, and for three months tried to reach the 
South Sea, reporting that he came as near as three days- 
from it. Hostile Indians and impassable mountains, 
however, stood in the way. 

In the meantime Ofiate was having troubles of his own, 
but he was resolute, brave and daring, and, in 1604, was 



12 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

rejoiced by the accomplishment of his great desire, for, 
reaching the Colorado River at Bill Williams fork, he 
descended its left branch until he arrived at the Gulf of 
California. In the chapter on Inscription Rock will be 
found a copy of the record left there of this memorable 
journey. 

There is also an inscription of Don Francisco Manuel 
de Silva Nieto, who was one of the governors of New 
Mexico after Ofiate (1629). Another inscription, with 
the date 1636, is claimed to be that of Diego Martin 
Barba, who was secretary to Don Francisco Martinez 
Baeza, governor at that time. 

The records in New Mexico or Washington of the pe- 
riod between Ofiate and the rebellion of 1680 are scant, 
doubtless owing to their destruction by the Indians during 
that uprising. 

Further investigation among the archives in Spain and 
Mexico may reveal much that we do not now know. 
Special research students of the University of California 
have already made interesting discoveries about this 
patriotic attempt of the Indians to drive out their hated 
subjugators and to regain control of their own lives. 

The governor in charge at the time of the rebellion 
was Otermin, and he was succeeded by Cruzate, who en- 
deavoured, with more or less success, to force the In- 
dians back to their allegiance. But it was to Don Diego 
de Vargas Zapata Lujan Ponce de Leon that the task 
of reconquering the country was allotted. It appears, 
however, that had the king known of the success of Cru- 
zate's efforts it is very possible that to Cruzate the " hon- 
our " of the reconquest would have fallen, for, on hear- 
ing what he had accomplished, he wrote the Viceroy of 
New Spain instructing him that if de Vargas had not yet 
taken his position, or was not governing successfully, he. 



The Explorations of New Mexico 13 

de Vargas, was to be given another office and the gover- 
norship be retained by Cruzate. 

De Vargas, on receiving his appointment, at once 
marched north, though with a small army. He proceeded 
with great rapidity, determining to take the enemy by 
surprise, but found most of the lower pueblos in ruins, 
and those of Santo Domingo and Cochiti abandoned. 
On the 13th of September, 1692, he reached Santa Fe, 
surrounded the city, shut off the water-supply and de- 
manded the surrender of the Indians. These were de- 
fiant and threatening, but, before night, yielded. Then, 
with the help of Tupatu, one of the chiefs who had been 
most active in the rebellion, but now offered his submis- 
sive allegiance, de Vargas visited the various pueblos, 
and, in turn, succeeded in persuading them all to return 
to the fold. At Acoma, Zuni, and the Hopi pueblos it 
appeared that there would be trouble, but the persuasions 
of de Vargas, the friars who accompanied him, or of 
Tupatu, answered the purpose, and all the pueblos asked 
for pardon and yielded without conflict. The only trou- 
bles that were serious were caused by attacks of bands of 
Apaches. Thus by the end of 1692 the reconquest sup- 
posedly was accomplished. 

But de Vargas knew there was considerable unrest 
among the Indians, and he visited the viceroy to urge the 
need of sending more soldiers and as many colonists as 
could be gathered together, in accordance with a request 
previously preferred. The viceroy agreed to supply 
them, but de Vargas, with characteristic impatience, hur- 
ried back with 800 colonists and about a hundred sol- 
diers. Seventeen friars, under Fray Salvador de San 
Antonio, also went along as missionaries. Before they 
reached Santa Fe the emigrants were suffering for want 
of food, and their woes were added to by rumours that 



14 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

the Indians were opposed to their coming, had made a 
treaty with the Apaches to join them in fighting the Span- 
iards and would do everything in their power to keep them 
out of the country. De Vargas also was warned that 
some of the Indians of the pueblo of Zia were decidedly 
in favour of war against the Spaniards. In addition to 
this, he was informed that his former interpreter, Pedro 
de Tapia, had been spreading disturbing rumours abroad 
to the effect that de Vargas, upon his return, intended to 
execute all the leaders of the rebellion of 1680. 

On his arrival at San Felipe, however, de Vargas sent 
messages of peace to the people of the various pueblos, 
and, in spite of warlike rumours, went on his way to Santa 
Fe. Tupatu joined him on the way and showed by his 
deep dejection that the evil rumours had reached his ears, 
but when de Vargas assured him of his good faith the 
Indian cheered up, and went on with the good news to 
Santa Fe. The result was that when de Vargas arrived 
he reentered the city, on the i6th of December, under the 
banner used for the same purpose by Ofiate, and thus was 
able to report the complete pacification of New Mexico 
to the viceroy. The document announcing his entry is 
still in existence and gives a very graphic picture of the 
event. 

From now on, however, de Vargas was to be in the 
midst of trouble. It came to him on every hand. His 
forbearance and kindly treatment of the rebellious In- 
dians was accounted as weakness, or cowardice, and the 
native medicine-men, always hostile to the Spaniards, in- 
cited them to new rebellion. The Tanos, for instance, 
had been allowed to leave their own village at Galisteo 
and come and live in the old palace and adjacent royal 
houses at Santa Fe. De Vargas now wanted the build- 
ings and urged the Tanos to vacate them. This they re- 



The Explorations of New Mexico 15 

fused to do, and on December 28, 1693, closed the en- 
trance to the plaza and made defiant preparations .for 
defense. 

Warfare now began in earnest and was waged furi- 
ously all day, the Spaniards, however, having the best of 
it. When night came the Tanos governor hanged him- 
self, and the rest surrendered. If de Vargas, in the past, 
had shown himself too lenient, there certainly could be 
no such charge repeated at this juncture, for he took sev- 
enty of the leaders and immediately executed them, and 
then sold four hundred of the women and children into 
slavery. 

This unexpected severity so angered the Indians that 
the Tanos and six of the pueblos of the Tehuas sprang 
to arms and fled to the summit of Tu-yo, the Black Mesa, 
near San Ildefonso, which they put into a state of de- 
fense. From here they raided the bands of cattle and 
horses of the Spaniards, and slaughtered every one they 
could capture who left the defenses of the city. The In- 
dians of Pecos, Zia, Santa Ana, and San Felipe remained 
faithful to de Vargas, and thus incurred the bitter enmity 
and hostility of their neighbours. When de Vargas 
marched to the Black Mesa, January 9, 1694, the hostiles 
bamboozled him by leading him to believe they wished 
to make peace. In March, however, things came to a 
head. With one hundred and ten soldiers, many of the 
settlers and friendly Indians, the governor began an at- 
tack. His two field pieces burst at the first discharge, 
yet for fifteen days the conflict was waged, intermittently, 
with thirty Indians slain, when de Vargas returned to 
Santa Fe with considerable maize and a hundred horses 
and mules he had recovered from the enemy. 

The rebels of Cochiti also took refuge on the Mesa 
of Cienequilla and showed fight, but they were compelled 



16 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

to flee by a surprise attack guided by friendly Indians, 
leaving twenty-one dead on the field of battle. 

In June the Taos Indians demanded attention, and on 
the way to them de Yargas had to fight the Tehuas at 
Cuyamungue, about eleven miles north of Santa Fe, and 
one Indian was killed for each mile traveled. 

Taos was deserted. The Indians had fled to the nearby 
mountains, and the governor sacked their pueblo and 
carried away a large amount of corn. He now had to 
march upon the Jemez, who, after harassing the Indian 
allies of the Spaniards at Zia and Santa Ana. had fled 
to the mesa above the San Diego Canyon. In the fight 
that ensued de Vargas slew about seventy of the foe, five 
others perished by fire, and seven threw themselves over 
the cliff and were dashed to pieces rather than surrender. 
He also captured three hundred and sixty-one prisoners. 
Later the Jemez Indians gave up one of their chiefs, who, 
they claimed, had incited them to war, and de Vargas 
sent him for ten years' slavery to the mines of New Spain. 

Another attack was now made upon the Tanos and 
Tehuas on the Black Mesa, at San Ildefonso. Twice 
when de Vargas attempted to scale the summit he was 
driven back. He was more successful in cutting off sup- 
plies, and the desperate Indians, to save themselves from 
starving to death, came down and gave battle several 
times in the valley. Each attempt, however, was in vain, 
and after repeated defeats they became discouraged and 
sued for peace. 

This seemed to end the troubles. The Indians had had 
enough. They had tested the power of the Spaniards and 
found them too hard to fight. They acknowledged their 
defeat and promised to be good if de Vargas would re- 
turn to them their women and children, for whenever the 
governor had been successful in one of his attacks on the 



The Old Franciscan Mission at the Pueblo of Zia. 

From a Painting made especially for this work by Carlos Vierra. 



The Explorations of New Mexico 17 

pueblos, he captured not only the men (who were sold 
into slavery to the mines of New Spain), but the women 
and children also. These were given as servants to the 
Spanish and Mexican colonists. This action on the part 
of de Vargas was now to rebound upon his own head. 
To keep faith with the Indians he ordered the return of 
their women and children, when the colonists severely 
abused him for depriving them of their excellent servants. 

The friars resumed their missionary labours among the 
Indians, and all again seemed well. 

This content, however, proved to be only on the sur- 
face. The Indians were filled with bitter hatred of the 
Spaniards, and the presence of the padres added fuel to 
the fire as they sought to break up the " ways of the old " 
and thus destroy the power of the native medicine men, 
who were more dogmatic as to their being in the right 
than were the friars themselves. 

Then in 1696 famine broke out and its gaunt specter 
stalked to and fro among the colonists, adding more woe 
to the trouble-cup that for so long had been brewing for 
the unhappy governor. The friars, who were better able 
than any to judge the temper of the Indians, petitioned 
him, — nay, insisted, that he place guards of soldiers at 
each mission. Preferring to believe that the Indians were 
thoroughly pacified he replied that those friars who were 
afraid might leave their charges and return to Santa Fe. 
A few of them took advantage of this permission, and it 
was well they did so, for, on June 4, the Indians of Taos, 
Picuries, the Tehuas, the Oueres of Santo Domingo and 
Cochiti, as well as the Jemez arose, killed five mission- 
aries and twenty-one Spaniards and then fled to the 
mountains. There they persuaded the Navahos and the 
pueblos of Acoma and Zuni to join with them in an at- 
tack upon the pueblos of Zia, Santa Ana and San Felipe, 



18 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

who still remained " loyal " to the Spaniards. At Zia 
there were a few soldiers, and the alcade-mayor of Berna- 
lillo joining them, a fierce battle took place, raging in the 
San Diego canyon and over the ruins of San Juan. Al- 
though the Indians had the much larger force they were 
defeated, with the loss of thirty men. This broke up the 
confederation. The Jemez fled and remained with the 
Navahos for several years, and thus escaped punishment, 
but de Vargas was resolved to make an example of the 
Acomese and Zunis. On the 8th of August he marched 
to Acoma, and on the 15th made an attack. Though he 
failed to scale the penyol height, he captured five prison- 
ers, one of them being the chief. The latter he released, 
but, being denied the ascent to the village, he shot the 
other four and retired. 

The following month found him fighting the Taos In- 
dians in several battles, after which they submitted and 
returned to their pueblo. The Tehuas of San Juan and 
Picuries next received attention, and on the 26th of Oc- 
tober, after a severe defeat, eighty-four Indian women 
and children were captured and given to the Spanish sol- 
diers on their return to Santa Fe, as servants. 

This year saw the end of the governorship of de Vargas 
and though he expected a reappointment, and the king 
actually made it, communications with Spain were so 
slow that Don Pedro Rodriguez Cubero was appointed 
as his successor, took his place, heard charges preferred 
against him (de Vargas), fined him four thousand pesos, 
and sent him to prison for three years before the will of 
the king became known. Not only was he reappointed, 
but the Crown gave him public recognition and offered 
him a choice of the titles of marques or condc. In the 
attack upon de Vargas by the colonists he was accused 
of several things. He was charged with the embezzle- 



The Explorations of New Mexico 19 

ment of money given to him by the viceroy for the sup- 
port of the colonists ; his execution of the Tanos captives 
was said to have caused the uprising of 1694-6; the 
famine was the result of his mismanagement; and he had 
driven out of the country those families that were likely 
to have testified against him. As de Vargas had resisted 
the authority of Cubero in displacing him and appealed to 
the viceroy (who did not sustain him) the other, as we 
have seen, fined and imprisoned him, at the very time the 
king had publicly acclaimed him as the pacifier of New 
Mexico and had offered him the patent of nobility. Such 
is Fate ! and thus are treated the puppets of kings ! 

It is not my purpose, however, to retail the quarrels of 
the rulers of New Mexico. Let it suffice to say that 
from now on the Pueblos practically were subjugated. 
The Navahos and Apaches continued to give considerable 
trouble, carrying on their depredations and terrorizing 
even up to within the past thirty or forty years when the 
United States succeeded in drawing their savage teeth. 



CHAPTER III 

THE HOMERIC EPIC OF NEW MEXICO 

Much of what we know of the early Grecian wars and 
their heroes comes to us through Homer. For centuries 
the work of the blind bard of Greece has been the mental 
training ground of the youth of all civilized countries. 
They have learned not only language, history, mythology 
and warfare from him but standards of heroism, bravery 
and manhood. 

I have no objection to Homer. I would have every 
boy and girl master him thoroughly. But, where oppor- 
tunity affords, where local annals, traditions, or history 
can be found to supplement Homer and thus give local 
colour to the deeds of bravery, acts of heroism, lives of 
glorious manhood, I would introduce and use these " local 
Homers " in the education of the youth of the land and 
thus fire them to the highest stimulation. 

Is it not self-evident that boys and girls will take more 
interest in events that have occurred on their own native 
soil, — the place of their present everyday habitation — 
and in the men who shaped these events, than they will in 
those of the far-away Homeric lands and days? The 
sooner we can put into the hearts of our youth the thought 
that they are as capable of great deeds as any people of 
history the nobler their lives, and the higher their aspira- 
tions will become. 

To New Mexico especially do I commend this argu- 
ment. Her history is full of fascination and interest. 

20 



The Homeric Epic of New Mexico 21 

She is a prolific source of original-document study, full 
of the lively spirit of adventure and of stirring incidents 
in flood and field, — fights with fierce and bloody Indians, 
smothering sandstorms, freezing blizzards, trackless des- 
erts, pathless forests, treacherous quicksands, and awe- 
some canyons. 

One of these original sources is Villagra's Historia de 
la Nueva Mexico, published in 1610, — over three hun- 
dred years ago, — and to make it more Homeric, it is 
written in verse — thirty- four cantos — each of which, 
in spite of its rather high-flown efforts, is packed full 
of useful historical information. This book belongs 
legitimately to the chapter on New Mexico Literature, but 
so important is its subject-matter from a historical stand- 
point that it deserves especial treatment. 

The original work is rare, yet copies enough were 
known to exist to have prevented the historians from giv- 
ing — as they all did — incorrect dates of the Ofiate con- 
quest. Its value, however, seems to have been over- 
looked. Every one ignored it until, in 1877, Hubert 
Howe Bancroft found it to be a real compendium of 
facts, indeed a reasonably true history of the Ofiate expe- 
dition. About the same time a Spanish investigator, 
Fernandez Duro, and our own Bandelier also called at- 
tention to it. Its importance now, however, is fully rec- 
ognized : so much so that, in 1899, Don Francisco del 
Paso y Troncoso, Director of the National Museum of 
Mexico, was so anxious to secure a copy that he made the 
trip to Madrid, expressly for that purpose. He succeeded 
in obtaining one and brought it back to Mexico, where he 
reprinted it, in 1900, in two volumes. Even these are as 
scarce as the proverbial hen's teeth. 

From it all New Mexican historians, since the time of 
Bancroft, quote, as Villagra was an important member 



22 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

of Onate's expedition, and his great poem was published 
only eleven years after the conquest took place. 
Bancroft thus refers to it: 

When I had occasion to consult its pages in 1877, I did so with an 
idea that it might furnish material for a brief note as a literary 
curiosity; but I found it a most complete narrative, very little if 
at all the less useful for being in verse. The subject is well enough 
adapted to epic narration, and in the generally smooth-flowing 
endecasyllabic lines of Villagra loses nothing of its intrinsic fascina- 
tion. Occasionally the author quits the realm of poesy to give us 
a document in plain prose; and while enthusiastic in praise of his 
leader and his companions, our New Mexican Homer is modest in 
recounting his own exploits. Of all the territories of America — 
or of the world, so far as my knowledge goes — New Mexico alone 
may point to a poem as the original authority for its early annals. 
Not less remarkable is the historic accuracy of the muse in this 
production, or the long concealment of the book from the eye of 
students. 

He thus translates the opening stanzas: 

Of arms I sing and of the man heroic: 

The being, valour, prudence, and high effort 

Of him whose endless, never-tiring patience, 

Over an ocean of annoyance stretching, 

Despite the fangs of foul, envenomed envy. 

Brave deeds of prowess ever is achieving; 

Of those brave men of Spain, conquistadores, 

Who, in the Western India nobly striving. 

And searching out all of the world yet hidden, 

Still onward press their glorious achievements. 

By their strong arms and deeds of daring valour. 

In strife of arms and hardships as enduring 

As, with rude pen, worthy of being honoured. 

And thee I supplicate, most Christian Philip, 

Since of New Mexico thou art the Phoenix 

Of late sprung forth and in thy grandeur risen 

From out the mass of living flame and ashes 

Of faith most ardent, in whose glowing embers 

Thy own most holy father and our master 

We saw inwrapped, devoured by sacred fervour — 

To move some little time from off thy shoulders 



The Homeric Epic of New Mexico 23 

The great and heavy weight, that thee oppresses, 

Of that terrestrial globe which in all justice 

Is by thine own strong arm alone supported; 

And giving, gracious king, attentive hearing. 

Thou here wilt see the weight of weary labours, 

And grievous calumnies with which is planted 

The holy gospel and the faith of Jesus 

By that Achilles who by royal order 

Devotes himself to such heroic service. 

And if I may by rare access of fortune 

Have thee, most noble Philip, for a hearer, 

Who doubts that with a universal impulse 

The whole wide world will hold its breath to listen 

To that which holds so great a king's attention? 

Then, being thus by thee so highly favoured. 

Since it is nothing less to write the story 

Of deeds that worthy are of the pen's record, 

Than to achieve deeds that no less are worthy 

Of being put by the same pen in writing, 

Nothing remains but that those men heroic, 

For whose sake I this task have undertaken, 

Should still encourage by their acts of valour 

The flight ambitious of a pen so humble. 

For in this case I think we shall see equaled 

Deeds by the words in which they are recorded. 

Listen to me, great king, for I was witness 

Of all that here, my lord, I have to tell thee. 

Lummis, in his Spanish Pioneers, has a fine chapter on 
Villagra to which I heartily commend my readers. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE GREAT PUEBLO REBELLION OF 1680 

What is patriotism? What is a rebellion? Who 
judges the eternal right of these matters? Were George 
Washington and his compeers in the right to rebel against 
England? They and we say, Yes! but had you asked 
king, queen, princes, lords, statesmen, bishops and all the 
godly men of England at the time, scarce one of them 
would have said other than that the leaders of the Ameri- 
can rebellion were traitors and scoundrels, fit for igno- 
minious death, which assuredly would have been meted 
out to them had they been caught. 

Traitors to whom? to what? 

There lies the whole question. Constituted authority 
is not always righteous authority, and if it is allowed to 
determine its own righteousness, without appeal, who 
shall dare question it? Kings have ruled ever by the 
right of might, hence he who opposed that might was, to 
them, traitor, rebel, renegade, disloyal, dishonourable, 
and worthy of death. Many a man has gone down to 
death branded with one or more of these opprobrious 
terms, who yet was a brave and upright gentleman, hating 
tyrannical power and placing his life in the gamble to 
oppose it. 

Let it forever be proclaimed that he who rebels against 
power, unlaiv fully exercised, against tyranny, injustice, 
wrong, is a hero, a world-patriot, one of the great and 
noble throng that has made all world progress possible, 

24 



The Great Pueblo Rebellion of 1680 25 

It is in such a category, therefore, that I place the 
leaders of the Indian rebellion in New Mexico of 1680. 
The Spaniards had come; they had "subjugated" the 
Pueblos, they were the " duly constituted authorities," so 
declared by statesmen and priests as well as the military. 

I do not propose, here, to argue the abstract right of a 
progressive people to take possession of the country of a 
non-progressive people, for this is the staggering question 
that for weary weeks occupied the attention of the great 
Peace Congress in Paris at the close of the World War. 

But it does seem reasonable and right, — granting, 
temporarily, for the sake of the argument, the right of 
the stronger nation to possess itself of the lands of the 
weaker nation — that the more powerful should treat 
those they have subjugated with kindliness and due con- 
sideration. 

Did the Spaniards do this? 

Let them be their own witnesses. 

The Pueblo rebellion of 1680 was so striking an up- 
rising and had such a wonderful effect upon the history 
of New Mexico and Arizona, and there were so many 
dramatic features connected with it that it is worth while 
to devote a few pages to a thorough understanding of it 
and its leaders. Unquestionably the dominating spirit 
was Pope (Po-pay), a man of tireless energy and won- 
derful strength of character. As early as 1675, Pope 
began to attract the attention of the Spaniards. There 
had been a lot of trouble at the pueblo of San Ildefonso. 
The friar in charge, who was also Superior of the con- 
vent, had suffered in several peculiar ways so that he 
thought he was bewitched. He accused the Indians of 
putting this magical and devilish spell upon him, A num- 
ber of them were arrested and placed on trial. As a re- 
sult of the trial forty-three Indians were sold into slavery 



26 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

and four more of them were hung. It was at this junc- 
ture that Pope began to act. Without starting an upris- 
ing, but in the most discreet and diplomatic manner, he 
aroused enough feeHng and sentiment among his people 
so that seventy of the principal warriors early one morn- 
ing entered the house of the Governor of the territory 
at Santa Fe with eggs, chickens, tobacco, beans, buckskin, 
dressed-skins, etc., which were offered as a ransom for 
the release of their brethren, the prisoners. The Gover- 
nor was so impressed by the demeanour, and also per- 
haps by the number of the petitioners, that he agreed to 
yield to their request. 

During the preceding eighty years the Indians had 
leagued together five times in order to free themselves 
from the domination of the Spaniards, but each time they 
had been beaten and their incipient insurrections crushed. 
Now a leader and a patriot was to arise whose personality 
was such that he was able to dominate his people and ulti- 
mately win for them the independence they so much de- 
sired. Pope was a native of San Juan, but for several 
years had resided at Taos. He was a medicine-man who 
had achieved a great reputation by his success in a variety 
of ways. Personally he was brave, daring and physically 
strong. His mentality was so powerful and his personal 
influence and magnetism so great that he was able to quell 
all jealousies among the Indians, and soon wielded a 
power not only over the mass of the people but over his 
brother medicine-men that made them as plastic as clay 
in his hands. For an Indian he was a great traveler. 
With all the arts of diplomacy and religious fervour of 
an enthusiast, he had so prevailed upon the medicine- 
men of the Navahos, Apaches and other tribes that he 
had been admitted into their secret organizations, and 
had learned all their most wonderful rites, ceremonies and 



The Great Pueblo RebeUion of 1680 27 

potent " medicine." Withal, he was eloquent with a pas- 
sion and fervour that carried everything before him. 

He claimed to have had communications from Those 
Above empowering him to lead his people in an uprising 
which should mean the complete freedom of their country 
from the hated Spanish oppressor. As a proof of the au- 
thority of his mission, he invited the principales of each 
pueblo to send one or more representatives at a given 
time that they might hear for themselves the confirmation 
of his authority to accomplish this great result that hith- 
erto had seemed impossible. He took care that the ap- 
pointed night was one of perfect darkness. No moon 
gave the slightest light to interfere with his plans. In 
the farthest recess of the darkest kiva at Taos he received 
the delegates. At the proper moment, to which he had 
skillfully led up by his graphic eloquence, two of his most 
trusted associates suddenly appeared before the throng, 
already thrilled and nerved to the highest tension, in such 
guise as would have startled more knowing men than 
these simple-hearted Indians. Pope had learned that if 
he smeared the bodies of his associates with certain phos- 
phorous substances they could be made to glow in the 
darkness, especially if the conspirators held an extra sup- 
ply of the sulphur with which now and again they would 
rub over their faces and bodies and thus appear to be 
illuminated with new fire. These two men had been so 
thoroughly rehearsed by Pope that they performed their 
allotted task to perfection. They danced as only a 
trained and enthusiastic religionist could dance, and then 
they gave messages from Those Above confirming Pope's 
claims. Their dances, songs, and messages were all so 
strange, so awe-inspiring, that the delegates returned to 
their homes thoroughly impressed, so that Pope's instruc- 
tions were carried out to the very letter. The remarkable 



28 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

thing of the whole conspiracy is that though there were 
a number of the Indians who had accepted the faith of 
the Spaniards and had become Christians and many of 
them were devotedly attached to the priests and their 
masters and mistresses, not one of them was found — so 
far — who dared to betray the secret of the uprising. 

At this time there were fifteen hundred Spaniards in 
New Mexico, about five hundred of whom lived in Santa 
Fe. This five hundred had about an equal number of 
Mexican Indian servants. Bandelier thus describes the 
town as it appeared at that time: "On the south side 
of the little river there was no town. A few houses oc- 
cupied by Spanish families had been built among the little 
huts of the Indian servants. The name * Analco,' given 
to the quarters about San Miguel, dated from the past 
century. The chapel of San Miguel, built after 1636, 
loomed up over scattered fields and dispersed buildings of 
small proportions. The town proper stood all on the 
north side. The town was somewhat larger than it is 
to-day. It extended further east. Its north side was 
occupied by the ' Royal Houses,' as the palace was mostly 
called. San Francisco street was the ' Calle Real,' the 
principal street of the place. A street intersected it at 
right angles, passing through the buildings now owned by 
Gov. Prince, and continued northward along the east 
side of the Palace. It terminated in a broad trail lead- 
ing to Tesuque. The Palace, therefore, had a wider 
fachada than the edifice that bears its name to-day, and 
which occupies only part of the original site. Another 
street ran from north to south along the western side of 
the royal houses, and a fourth one continued west of the 
main front of that building, so that the town lay really 
west of the present square, and was divided into three 
bodies of buildings, one between San Francisco street 



The Great Pueblo Rebellion of 1680 29 

and the river, another north of that street and south of 
the miHtary headquarters, and the third (composed only 
of a few dwelHngs), on the site of headquarters and 
north of it. The houses were not contiguous. Gardens, 
nay, small fields, surrounded each residence. Santa Fe 
formed a long triangle tapering gradually to the west, 
the eastern side of which was marked by the parochial 
church and its convent. The site of that church, the 
foundations of which were laid in 1622, is the same now 
occupied by the cathedral." The other Spaniards were 
scattered on farms and settlements from Algodones on the 
south as far north as Taos, and from the east as far as 
Santo Domingo to Zuni and Hopi on the west. There 
were only a few soldiers and two small cannons with a 
small quantity of ammunition at Santa Fe, and this was 
the only place that made the slightest pretense of being 
fortified. 

At least twenty thousand Pueblo Indians were pledged 
to the uprising. One fact alone shows the generalship 
and dominating power of Pope. The uprising had been 
ifixed for the night of the new moon, August 28th, but 
two Christian Indians at Tesuque had twice warned the 
padre that great danger hovered over him and all the 
" Gray Gowns " and " Long Beards " (as the Indians 
called the Franciscan priests and warriors) in New Mex- 
ico. The padre hurried to Santa Fe to alarm the Gover- 
nor. Pope's faithful spies informed him of this fact. 
He was wise enough to know the result of a premature 
discovery of his plans in that it would allow time for 
preparations for defense. Indeed, Governor Otermin at 
once took measures for the fortification of the capital 
and sent messengers to gather in all the scattered Span- 
iards. But this time the Spaniards were dealing with a 
master mind. Pope's messengers were sent scurrying 



30 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

over the country almost as soon as the Governor's, and 
at the same moment that the warning was given the up- 
rising took place, eighteen days ahead of the allotted 
time. Now ensued scenes of cruelty and slaughter that 
only an Indian country can witness. Aroused to despera- 
tion by over a century of stern subjugation, the Indians 
tortured, slew, and mutilated every Spaniard in the coun- 
try that they could lay hands upon. A few maidens only 
were spared, and these were to be given as wives, as re- 
wards to Pope's chief henchmen. Priests, women, and 
children fell under the murderous blades of the Indian 
warriors whose work of extermination went on with 
unrelenting ferocity. Eighteen of the twenty-five priests 
in the various missions were slain and three hundred and 
eighty Spaniards immediately fell. The Governor gath- 
ered together the inhabitants of Santa Fe and fortified 
the buildings and enclosure on the present site of the old 
palace. On the two towers at the corners small guns 
were stationed, but the ground was badly chosen. The 
Governor, however, made a brave defense, and when the 
Indians completely surrounded him and sent two crosses, 
a white one which signified peace and the immediate 
withdrawal of the Spaniards from the country, and a red 
one indicating war and extermination, Otermin chose the 
red one, and on the 20th of August, after the water-supply 
had been shut off and the horses and animals began to 
suffer and die, made a bold sortie in which a number of 
Indians were killed and forty-seven captured. The next 
day these forty-seven prisoners were executed in the 
plaza in full sight of the Indian forces on the top of 
what is now Marcy Hill. There was now but one hope 
for the Spaniards and that was to march over the weary 
three hundred miles to El Paso through a country filled 
with hostile Indians, where all food supplies had been 



The Great Pueblo Rebellion of 1680 31 

either carried away or destroyed. With their sick and 
wounded the march began. It was an ofificial evacuation 
of the country; an open confession, for the time being, at 
least, of defeat. With scanty provisions the fugitives 
suffered greatly from hunger. At Isleta they were com- 
pelled to halt and send forward to El Paso for food, from 
which point four wagon-loads of corn were sent to their 
relief. They finally decided to encamp at San Lorenzo, 
about three miles from El Paso, where wood and water 
could be obtained. From here they sent a report to the 
viceroy of their expulsion. While they received a litde 
help from the settlers at El Paso in the way of beef and 
corn, their condition soon became pitiable. Their fight- 
ing men reduced to a mere handful, they were harassed 
by the hostile Indians and upon the women and children 
devolved much of the work of making habitable the few 
huts that were hastily built. 

On the other hand, the Indians were elated beyond 
■measure at the speedy success of their revolt. Their 
rejoicings became frantic revelings. We know how, even 
in a civilized country, people become almost frantic over 
a victory of their troops, so we can form some concep- 
tion as to the great excitement that was felt by the In- 
dians when they realized that their country, which, for 
over a century and a quarter, had been subjugated by 
these haughty white men, was at last free from their hated 
presence, and they left to themselves again. They danced 
their wildest dances and gave themselves up to the de- 
struction, as far as was possible, of everything that sug- 
gested Spain or the hated worship of the Gray Gowns. 
Practically nothing was spared. They plundered every- 
thing that they could use and burned everything that re- 
mained. They set fire to the church and convent, mak- 
ing burning heaps of the furniture, relics and other equip- 



32 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

ment. Everything was destroyed except the adobe walls, 
which still remain, in the restored San Miguel chapel. 
Then they danced their ancient dances and made offerings 
of flour, seeds, grain, and thousands of pahos, or prayer 
sticks, to their native gods, to appease them for the loss 
of their supremacy during the period of Spanish domi- 
nation, and at the same time to assure them that hence- 
forth they and they alone should be worshiped. They 
then went to a near-by stream and with large bowls of 
suds made from the amole, the native soap-weed, washed 
and scrubbed themselves from top to toe to remove every 
trace and effect of Christian baptism. 

Instigated by their medicine-men, they were particu- 
larly vindictive in their treatment of the padres. Father 
Juan Jesus, the old priest at Jemez, was awakened in the 
dead of night, was dragged from his bed, and made to 
carry the Indians on his back, as he crawled on his hands 
and knees, until he fell dead. His body was cast out and 
devoured by the wolves. At Acoma the padre was 
stripped naked, dragged about the streets with a rope 
around his neck, then beaten to death with clubs and 
stones. At Zuni, the priest was dragged from his cell, 
stripped, stoned and shot on the plaza and his body burned 
in the church. 

The official reports show that four hundred and one 
Spaniards perished during the massacre, including twen- 
ty-one priests and seventy-three able-bodied men. The 
number of fugitives who escaped, including several hun- 
dred friendly Indians of the Piros and Tewas, was 1,946. 

For a time after the rebellion, Pope's power was su- 
preme, then dissensions arose among the northern and 
southern Pueblos and in the native wars that ensued the 
Apaches and Navahos made a number of attacks upon 
them for the purpose of plunder. 



The Great Pueblo RebelUon of 1680 33 

In the meantime Governor Otermin, in 1681, attempted 
to reconquer New Mexico, but neither his efforts nor 
those of his successors were carried on with the vigour 
that was essential to success until in 1691 Don Diego de 
Vargas Zapata Lujan was appointed Governor. He 
practically reestablished Spanish rule in New Mexico and 
the story of his reconquest is one of great bravery, though 
naturally it destroyed the independence and freedom of 
the pueblo people. 



CHAPTER V 

THE world's greatest AUTOGRAPH ALBUM, 
INSCRIPTION ROCK 

One of the world's harmless — nay, indeed, useful, 
educative, as well as emotional — fads, which had its pe- 
riod of exaltation and then of recession, yet has never 
entirely died out, is that of obtaining the autographs of 
the great, near-great, would-be-great, those who deem 
themselves great, or simply our friends and acquaintances, 
either in guest-books, birthday-books, or books especially 
contrived for the purpose. 

In New Mexico, however, is an autograph album larger 
than any in existence in any other part of the world, and 
unique, in that it has but three or four pages, and these 
were formed by Nature centuries and centuries ago. To 
the Mexicans of the country it is known as El Morro. 
Attention was first of all called to it by Lieut. J. H. Simp- 
son, who, in 1849, under Lieut.-Col. J. M. Washington, 
made a military reconnaissance from Santa Fe, into the 
Navaho country. The following is his story of his visit : 

A couple of miles further, meeting in the road Mr. Lewis, who was 
waiting for me to offer his services as guide to a rock upon the face 
of which were, according to his repeated assertions, half an acre of 
inscriptions, many of them very beautiful, and upon its summit some 
ruins of a very extraordinary character, I at once fell in with the 
project, and obtained from the colonel commanding the necessary 
permission. Taking with me one of my assistants, Mr. R. H. Kern, 
ever zealous in an enterprise of this kind; the faithful Bird, an 
employee who had been with me ever since I left Fort Smith — 
Mr. Lewis being the guide — and a single pack-animal, loaded with 

34 




Photograph by U. S. Forest Service. 

EL MOi?i?0 — INSCRIPTION ROCK. 



The World's Greatest Autograph Album 35 

a few articles of bedding, a few cooking utensils, and some provi- 
sions — we diverged from the command, with the expectation of 
not again meeting it until we should reach the Pueblo of Laguna, 
from seventy to eighty miles distant. There were many in the 
command who were inclined to the beHef that Lewis's representa- 
tions were all gammon. In regard to the extent of the inscriptions, I 
could not but believe so too ; but. as respects the fact of there being 
some tolerable basis for so grandiloquent a description, I could 
not, reasoning upon general principles of human nature, reject it. 
'Mr. Lewis had been a trader among the Navahos, and, according 
to his statement, had seen these inscriptions in his journeyings to 
and from their country. And now he was ready to conduct me to 
the spot. How could I doubt his sincerity? I could not; and my 
faith was rewarded by the result. 

Bearing off slightly to the right from the route of the troops, 
we traversed for eight miles a country varied, in places, by low 
mesas, blackened along their crests by outcrops of basalt, and on 
our left by fantastic white and red sandstone rocks, some of them 
looking like steamboats, and others presenting very much the ap- 
pearance of fagades of heavy Egyptian architecture. This distance 
traversed, we came to a quadrangular mass of sandstone rock, of 
pearly whitish aspect, from two hundred to two hundred and fifty 
feet in height, and strikingly peculiar on account of its massive 
character and the Egyptian style of its natural buttresses and 
domes. Skirting this stupendous mass of rock, on its left or north 
side, for about a mile the guide, just as we had reached its eastern 
terminus, was noticed to leave us and ascend a low mound or ramp 
at its base, the better, as it appeared, to scan the face of the rock, 
which he had scarcely reached before he cried out to us to come 
up. We immediately went up, and, sure enough, here were in- 
scriptions, and some of them very beautiful; and although, with 
those which we afterwards examined on the south face of the rock, 
there could not be said to be half an acre of them, yet the hyperbole 
was not near so extravagant as I expected to find it. The fact then 
being certain that here were indeed inscriptions of interest, if not 
of value, one of them dating as far back as 1606, all of them very 
ancient, and several of them very deeply as well as beautifully en- 
graven, I gave directions for a halt — Bird at once proceeding to 
get up a meal, and Mr. Kern and myself to the work of making 
fac-similes of the inscriptions. 

These inscriptions are, a part of them, on the north face of 
the rock, and a part on the south face. 

It will be noticed that the greater portion of these inscriptions 
are in Spanish, with some little sprinkling of what appeared to be 



36 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 



an attempt at Latin, and the remainder in hieroglyphics, doubtless of 
Indian origin. 

The face of the rock, wherever these inscriptions are found, is of 
a fair plain surface, and vertical in position. The inscriptions, in 
most instances, have been engraved by persons standing at the 
base of the rock, and are, therefore, generally not higher than a 
man's head. 

After making copies of all the inscriptions Mr. Kern engraved 
the following on the clifif: 

Lt J-KS' nofsotiy SA.vR H.K ui\ Arfi* . 



" Lt. J. H. Simpson, U. S. A., and R. H. Kern, artist, vis- 
ited and copied these inscriptions, September 17, i8th, 1849." 



The perfection of the inscriptions is remarkable. 
They are as distinctive in their character as the hand- 
writings of men on paper, and all of them are remarkably 
well done. The surprising thing is that after all these 
years they are still so perfect; but this is accounted for 
by the peculiar character of the rock and the fact that it 
does not crumble when exposed to the weather. It is 
of very fine grain and comparatively easy to scratch into, 
and the two walls upon which the inscriptions occur being 
practically protected from storms, these rock autographs 
remain almost as clear and as perfect as the day they 
were written. 

The inscriptions themselves are of decided historic 
value. The major part of them are on the front of El 
Morro, but one finds, on rounding the eastern escarp- 
ment, that he can reach a deep recess which gives a well 
defined south wall. Here Simpson found " a cool and 



The World's Greatest Autograph Album 37 



capacious spring," and doubtless the conquistadores also 
found it and made it the site of their camps. For, on the 
walls above and near by are several of the more important 
inscriptions. The earliest of these is that of Juan de 
Ofiate. It has been there nearly three hundred years and 
is clearly readable. It is the oldest inscription as far as 
we know. 









na? 







r 



-^t6iU\-99\ (>as 



-^ 



• Here is its original and translation : 

Paso por aqui el adelantando de don Jan 

Passed by here the officer Don Juan 

de Onate el descubrimento de la mar 

de Onate to the discovery of the sea 

del sur a i6 de Abril ao 1606. 

of the south on the i6th of April, year 1606. 

In our historical chapters the interesting story of this 
brave explorer is given. It was on his return from his 
memorable trip from San Gabriel de los Caballeros in 
New Mexico, in 1604, with thirty men, to the Gulf of 
California, that he stopped at El Morro and the inscrip- 
tion was written. 

The two names at the lower left corner of the Onate- 
inscription — Casados, 1727, and Juparelo — were un- 
doubtedly placed there much later, and as yet no historian 
has told us anything about them. 



38 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

Near to Ofiate's inscription is one which has caused 
considerable discussion. The date looks as if it might 
be 1526, but as no white man had ever entered New 

ToraqvipA zo Clj\lje kts ^ 

CldnoqueiJiiio^lOcx^'^'do del 
^cj/no a sue DsM a L^dejel^ 
JeJ>26^nosz 

Mexico as early as that it must be that the figure that 
looks somewhat like a five was intended for a seven. 
Thus read the translation of the autograph is as follows : 

By here passed the Ensign Joseph de Payba Basconzelos, the 
year that he brought the Council of the Kingdom at his own ex- 
pense, on the i8th of Feb., 1726. 

Close by are several historic autographs. One is of 
Juan Gonzales, 1629. This soldier was one of thirty 
who accompanied the New Father Custodian Perea, who 
had just been appointed to take charge of the missionary 
work of the Franciscans in New Mexico. With Perea 
was the Father Solicitor (Manso), and four other priests 
and two lay religious who were assigned to the western 
pueblos of Acoma, Zuni, and Hopi. They had ten 
wagons, four hundred cavalry horses and the soldiers 
were well armed, hence, possibly, the reason for their 
kind reception at Acoma and Zuni. At the former place 
they were " spontaneously proffered admission," writes 
Perea in his Verdadcra Relacion, published in 1632, and 
at Zuni " its natives, having tendered their good will and 
their arms received them with festive applause — a thing 
never before heard of in those regions, that so intractable 



The World's Greatest Autograph Album 3^ 

and various nations with equal spirit and semblance 
should receive the Frailes of St. Francis as if a great 
while ago they had communicated with them." 

Governor Don Francisco Manuel de Silva Nieto un- 
doubtedly was with this party, for Perea tells of his 
issuing an edict at Zuni, which shows the strictness with 
which the Spaniards sought to regulate the conduct of 
their soldiers toward the Indians. This edict read that 
" no soldier should enter a house of the pueblo, nor trans- 
gress in aggrieving the Indians, under the penalty of his 
life." Furthermore, it said that " to give that people to 
understand the veneration due to the priests, all the times 
that they arrived where they were, the Governor and sol- 
diers kissed their feet, falling upon their knees, caution- 
ing the Indians that they should do the same as they did ; 
for as much as this the example of the superiors can do." 

That this noisy welcome of the Spaniards and the 
priest did not change the real feeling of the Zunis is 
proven by the inscription later referred to, where a party 
was sent two years later to avenge the murder of Father 
Letrado. 

It was on his return journey from this trip that Gov- 
ernor Nieto's inscription was placed on El Morro. 

Here is a translation : 

The Most Illustrious Sir and Captain General of the provinces of 
New Mexico for the King our Master, passed by here on the return 
from the villages of Zuni on the 29th of July of the year of 1629; 



40 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 



and them (the Indians) he put in peace at their request (they), 
asking his favour as vassals of His Majesty. And anew they gave 
obedience; of vi^hich he did writh persuasiveness, zeal, and prudence, 
like such a most Christian (effaced), such a careful and gallant 
soldier of unending and exalted memory. 

A month later another autograph was added to the 
" album " (see original photo), and this pretty clearly re- 



i 



dii u major 

Q.ueiq^|ipiiobte iieTie ^<» Meto 
Su BracoJy^c}ubMflbl^^S^ Balor 
Confos Carros dt\ R5I Wesfro Se>to» 
CosQ ^esolo el R,so Cnf^E ffcto 
DeQta)sto^ Seisoierno^Bemrt)iNucu0 
Qu€Sb))&Ml'et«ni Vastyia Ft lleue 

veals the trouble the Governor was meeting with at Zuni. 
Perea tells that the devil urged the Indians " with men- 
aces, that they should eject this strange priest, Fr. Figue- 
redo, from their country. They put it into operation, all 
manifesting themselves in such manner that already they 
did not assist as they were wont, to bring water and wood, 
nor did one of them appear. By night was heard a great 
din of dances, drums, and caracoles, which among them 
is signal of war." But in this imminent danger God 
came to Fray Roque's succour, and to make a long story 
short, the missionary saw that the Indians were " well 
catechized and sufficiently fit," whereupon " he ordered to 
be built in the plaza a high platform, where he said mass 
with all solemnity, and baptized them on the day of St. 
Augustine (seemingly the day of St. Augustine of Hippo, 
August 28, not St. Augustine of England, May 26) of 



The World's Greatest Autograph Album 41 

the year 1629, singing the Te Deum Laudamus, etc.; and 
through having so good a voice, the Father Fray Roque 
— accompanied by the chant — caused devotion in all." 
Thus were the Zuni Christianized for the time being, al- 
though, needless to say, they did not understand a word 
the good fraile said, nor know the meaning of any part 
of the rites he celebrated for their benefit. 

Following is a translation of Governor Silva Nieto's 
second inscription: 

Here passed the Governor Don Francisco Manuel de Silva Nieto, 
whose indubitable prowess and valour have already conquered the 
impossible, with the wagons of Our Lord the King, a thing which 
he only accomplished, August 9 (One Thousand) Six Hundred, 
Twenty and Nine. That ( ? it be seen) that I passed to Zuni and 
carried the Faith. 

From this autograph we can assume that the Governor 
had scarcely had time to return to Santa Fe — thirty-six 
leagues from Acoma and fifty-six leagues from Zuni, be- 
fore he was called back to " conquer the impossible " with 
his " indubitable prowess and valour." 

Other autographs show that other pueblos, besides Zuni, 
were giving the Spaniards trouble. For instance, the one 
by Governor Martinez. 

The translation is as follows : 

In the year 1716 on the 26th of August, passed by here Don Felix 
Martinez, Governor and Captain General of this Kingdom, to 
the reduction and conquest of the Moquis (the Hopis), and in 
his Company the Reverend Father Fray Antonio Camargo, Custodian 
and Judge-Ecclesiastic. 



42 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

This was the attempt made by Governor Martinez to 
bring the recalcitrant Hopis back to their allegiance after 
the rebellion in which they had slain their Franciscan 
Missionaries. But it failed, and Martinez was recalled 
from his high position in disgrace. 

D/^22E)5eh 01757/ ^^^ 




am 



The first visit of a bishop to New Mexico is recorded 
in a fine inscription. The translation reads : 

On the 28th day of September of 1737, reached here the most 
illustrious Sefior Doctor Don Martin De Elizaecochea, Bishop of 
Durango, and on the 29th day passed on to Zuni. 

This refers to one of the official visits made by the 
Bishop of Durango, in whose district the whole of New 
Mexico belonged, and to which it remained attached until 
1852. 

Just above that of the Bishop and slightly to the left 
are two other autographs, doubtless of members of his 
party. Between them is a fairly well engraved repre- 
sentation of an ornamented cross. The larger inscrip- 
tion reads as follows : " On the 28th day of September, 
1737, reached here * B ' (supposed to represent Bachiller 



The World's Greatest Autograph Album 43 

— Bachelor — of Arts) Don Juan Ygnacio De Arra- 
sain ; " and the other merely says, " There passed by here 
Dyego Belagus." 

One of the finest of the autographs is that of General 
Don Diego de Vargas, who, in 1692, reconquered New 
Mexico after the Pueblo rebellion of 1680. 

Here is the original : 



/ 



? 



Cm\ii'iOD!>dv;6o 

TTieoC 160 ASVCO% 

The translation is as follows: 

Here was the General Don Diego de Vargas, who conquered 
for our Holy Faith and for the Royal Crown (of Spain) all the 
New Mexico, at his own expense (in the), year of 1692. 

Slightly north of the autograph of Governor de Vargas 
is one of the expedition sent by Governor Francisco Mar- 
tinez de Baeza. Long before the great rebellion of 1680 
the missionaries were having trouble with the Indians. 
The head missionary at Zuni was Fray Cristobal de 
Quiros and he had appealed for help. The original in- 
scription is clear and readable. It was evidently written 
by a skilful hand. 



44 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

^ ifcapihnfuJeM/iu 



The translation is as follows : 

We pass by here, the Lieutenant-Colonel and the Captain Juan 
de Archuleta, and the Lieutenant Diego Martin Barba and the 
Ensign Augustin de Ynojos, in the year 1636. 

In a slight depression near by is the inscription of an- 
other soldier of the expedition. 

JUAN GARSYA 1 636 

Of one inscription Lummis writes: 

Two quaint lines, in tiny but well-preserved letters, recall a 
pathetic story. It is that of a poor common soldier, who did 
not write his year. B'*t history supplies that. He was one of 
the Spanish " garrison " of three men left to guard far-off Zuni, and 
slain by the Indians in the year 1700. Not far away is the autograph 
of the leader of the "force" of six men who went in 1701 from 
Santa Fe to Zuni (itself a desert march of three hundred miles) 
to avenge that massacre, the Captain Juan de Urribarri. He left 
merely his name. 

The hardest inscription of all to read is this : 



The World's Greatest Autograph Album 45 







oJ)< 






At first sight it seemed impossible that one should de- 
cipher it. Lummis says of it : 

It was never deciphered until I put it into the hands of a great 
student of ancient writings — though after he solved the riddle it 
is clear enough to any one who knows Spanish. Its violent ab- 
breviations, the curious capitals with the small final letters piled 
" overhead,' and its reference to a matter of history of which few 
Americans ever heard, combined to keep it long a mystery. Reduced 
to long-hand Spanish, it reads : 

Se pasaron a 23 de Marzo de 1623 anos a la benganza de muerte del 
Padre Letrado. Lujan. 

They passed on the 23rd of March of the year 1623 to the aveng- 
ing of the death of the Father Letrado. Lujan. 

One unfamiliar with the history of the country could 
scarce dream of the tragedy and romance connected 
with these two lines. Father Francisco de Letrado was 
born in Spain, became fired with missionary zeal, was sent 
out to Mexico and thence to the Jumanos, a tribe that 
lived east of the Rio Grande. It is generaly supposed 
now that he was sent in 1623 to Zuni, to the pueblo of 
Hawikuh, there being another priest stationed at Halona 
— these being the two principal of the seven towns of 
Zuni. On Sunday, February 22, 1632, says Hodge, 



46 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

(a hundred years to a day before Washington was born), the 
Indians appeared to delay in attending mass. Fray Francisco, im- 
patient, and probably of a fiery and zealous nature, went out to 
urge them. He met some idolaters, and began to chide them. 
He saw at once that they were bent on killing him, so he knelt 
down, holding in his hands a small crucifix, and continued the 
remonstrance while in this attitude. The Indians shot him dead 
with arrows, carried off the corpse and scalped it, parading the 
scalp afterward at the usual dances. 

Almost immediately steps were taken to avenge his 
death. Francisco de la Mora Ceballos, Governor at the 
time, despatched a handful of soldiers under his Maestro 
de Campo, Tomas de Albizu, together with a few priests. 
As they stopped at Inscription Rock over night, doubt- 
less, one of the soldiers, Lujan, carved the two lines. 
The mission was successful, for, although the Zunis had 
fied to the summit of Taiyoallane, they were prevailed 
upon to come down peaceably and reaffirm their alle- 
giance. 

While the major part of these inscriptions but confirm 
the documentary evidences we possess of New Mexican 
history, there are a few incomplete inscriptions, the sig- 
nificance of which we should not understand were it not 
for the documents. For instance, an almost obliterated 
inscription reads : 

" Paso por aqui Fran° de an . . . alina . . ." 

This was undoubtedly Francisco de Anaia Alinazan, 
an officer of no great moment, yet who served under 
Governors Otermin, Cruzate, and De Vargas, and knew 
all the struggles of the great rebellion. He was at Santa 
Clara pueblo when the massacre of 1680 occurred, with 
three companions, all of whom were slain. He escaped 
by swimming across the Rio Grande. 

A striking autograph, framed in a square reads : 



The World's Greatest Autograph Album 47 

On the 5th of June, 1709 there passed by here, bound for Zuni, 
Ramon Paez Hurtado. 

On the other wall another Hurtado wrote : 



/flom GJN Dos l?3CR SOPOTARui 
I tl<5fajuNPA:2 i^TlA DOVl S^t AD or 






On the 14th of July, 1736 there passed by here General Juan Paez 
Hurtado, inspector, and in his company the Corporal Joseph 
Truillo. 

Here are three other inscriptions, of which, at some 
future time, some historian may give us interesting par- 
ticulars. 

/C^ ((mafio J/ely, jta. 

"(po no a- 1 ^^^/e ti^ f^ h^sal 
dado _ 




Earlier even than the Spanish inscriptions are a great 
number undoubtedly made by the Indians, possibly those 



48 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

who once inhabitated the ruins, so many of which are 
found hereabout. These are mere pictographs of snakes, 
deer, bear, wild sheep, moons, suns, crescents, Greek frets, 
swastikas, lightning and of men and women, etc. 

If what some people believe be true, viz., that the 
spirits of those who once visited or occupied a place 
often return to it, what a wonderful gathering of ex- 
plorers and notable historic characters might one not 
find here at some auspicious time! 

I do know this as a fact, that, sleeping one night here, 
I dreamed as though this spiritualistic idea were true. I 
saw Juan de Ofiate and conversed with him, and talked 
for long hours with De Vargas, listening to his bitter 
complaints against the king who failed to realize the hard- 
ships he had borne and the dangers he had encountered 
in bringing the rebellious Pueblos back to their allegiance. 
I heard the camped soldiers talking of what they would 
do to the murderers of Padre Letrado, at Zuni, and in 
another near-by group saw the padres huddled over a 
tiny fire, and, hovering over them, listened to their loving 
counsels — their hopes that by the love of God they might 
be able to soften the hard hearts of these murderous 
heathen and lead them securely and safely into the bosom 
of Mother Church. 

Yes, indeed, I was a thoughtful man all the following 
day, as I silently rode on to Zuni. Possessed of the 
spirit of the past I lived in the past and became one with 
those who made the history of New Mexico. 

While the inscriptions of El Morro are its chief at- 
traction there are other features connected with it that 
alone would demand serious attention. Seen from the 
front it presents a massive, unscalable wall. Indeed it is 
a noble triangular block of sandstone, of pearly whitish 
colour, with sheer walls over two hunded feet high and 



The Worl d's Greatest Autograph Album 49 

suggesting in its stupendous grandeur a temple or castle 
built after the style of the Egyptians, but immeasurably 
larger. The walls are seamed and marked with the 
storms and conflicts of many centuries and are thousands 
of feet long, while its towerlike appearance in front is 
matched by a singularly majestic piece of nature sculptur- 
ing in the rear. 

It is near this mass of sculptured rock that we find the 
" castle " is not so impregnable as it looks, for, to our 
surprise, after scaling a fairly steep wall and reaching 
the summit, we find the mass is cleft in twain, and there 
is a ravine which seems as if it had been stopped in 
the making. It thrusts itself directly into the solid 
sandstone, but does not come through to the front. In 
this hidden recess a small army might conceal itself, and 
a million people could pass in front of El Morro and 
never even dream of their existence. 

To our further surprise we find that on the top of each 
side of the cleft rock a ruined pueblo is perched. Simp- 
son describes these in his report, but they are so similar 
to the ruins found elsewhere dotted over a large part of 
New Mexico as to require no detailed description here. 
Of them, however, he naively remarks : 

What could have possessed the occupants of these villages to 
perch themselves so high up, and in such inaccessible localities, I 
cannot conceive, unless it were, as it probably was, from motives of 
security and defense. 

Inscription Rock is now a National Monument. Its 
inscriptions and ruins are no longer at the mercy of fool- 
ish vandals who think it " smart " to ruin a priceless his- 
toric memorial to gratify a momentary and senseless ca- 
price. 

As the years progress this great rock, — El Morro — 



50 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

will grow in interest, for around it is enshrined so much 
of the romance of prehistoric time, and also of those brave 
and daring Spaniards whose lust for gold led them to the 
conquest of this inhospitable land. 

In order to make El Morro more accessible to the 
traveling public the automobile road, leading south from 
Gallup, has been much improved. By way of Ramah, 
where the present custodian, Evon Z. Vogt, resides, the 
trip can be made in three or four hours, and in about 
six by way of the terraced-city of Zuni. The spring 
located on the south side, near where the Ofiate inscrip- 
tion is located, has been developed after being buried in 
the drifting sand and lost for many years. A watering 
trough has been erected, and an anti-freeze pump put in 
for pumping the water. A handsome new camp-house 
for visitors has been constructed of logs, well equipped 
with table and benches, and it is large enough to accom- 
modate not only a good-sized party but their automobile 
also. There is abundant firewood in the natural timber 
close by. Thus the temporary resting-place of the brave 
conquistadores is converted into a stopping-place for the 
automobile and railway travelers as they dash westward 
across the continent, making the trip with ease and com- 
fort in as many days as it originally occupied Juan de 
Ofiate months. 



CHAPTER VI 

MY ADVENTURES AT ZUNI 

The title to this chapter is not original. It was used 
by Lieut. Frank H. Gushing for three illustrated articles 
published respectively, in the December, 1882, February 
and May, 1883, Century. While I would not presume 
to suggest, even, that my adventures in any way equal 
those of Gushing, they certainly were interesting to me 
and seem worth recounting. 

The Zuni group of pueblos is the most historic pueblo 
group of the country. It is now definitely ascertained 
to be the far-famed, long-sought " Seven Gities of 
Cibola;" which Goronado hunted for in 1542. It was 
here that he was wounded, and from here he sent out his 
captains who discovered the Hopi pueblos, and the Grand 
Canyon of the Colorado River. 

It was in the chief town of the Zuni group that Gush- 
ing decided to live when Major Powell sent him forth 
to gain an insight into their whole social, religious, and 
ceremonial life. In the years he lived here he did more 
to penetrate their secrets, and give to the world an under- 
standing of their innerness, as well as of their beliefs and 
outward actions and observances, than had been gained 
by all the students of the world prior to him. We never 
can overestimate the value of the work Gushing accom- 
plished. He opened the way, gave the world the key, 
to a wealth of Ethnologic lore of which, up to that time, 
it had been altogether ignorant. 

51 



52 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

I have made several trips to Zuni. On one occasion, 
after driving from Grant's Station, on the main line of 
the Santa Fe to Las Tinajas, the Home of Don Leopoldo 
Mazon, v^ho had kindly proffered his services, my pho- 
tographer and I wrere outfitted by him. That trip in 
itself was an adventure never to be forgotten. The con- 
veyance w^as a " rattlety-bangy " buckboard, and our fiery 
steeds were two almost unbroken broncos. The vaqueros 
caught the latter in the corral, brought them to the front 
of the casa (where we had a hundred miles square of 
plain, mesa and foothill to roam over), blindfolded them, 
and threw on the harness to the accompaniment of much 
snorting, jumping aside, kicking and trembling. As soon 
as the scary (scary themselves and making me scary) 
creatures were duly harnessed, the lines were placed in my 
shaking fingers and I was told to drive. The blinds 
were withdrawn and in a moment I saw before me a 
chaos of horse-flesh, dancing, jumping, leaping, standing 
on hind legs, prancing sideways, engaging in every kind 
of dance-step known, and many not yet introduced, and 
doing stunts that would have been worth a fortune to the 
owner of a circus horse. Yet, somehow, we didn't 
seem to be traveling. My fiery and untamed steeds were 
good huckers, they were expert stallers, they were un- 
surpassed in antics generally, and knew their business as 
halkers, but travelers? — that was a word and thought 
unknown to them while harnessed to the awful contrap- 
tion that was dangling behind them. 

What was to be done ? 

My ever-ready and obliging friend, Don Leopoldo, 
called to the vaqueros. Almost before I could guess what 
was going to happen the loop of a rawhide riata was 
thrown around the neck of each animal, the vaqueros went 
ahead, fastening their riatas to the horns of their saddles 



My Adventures at Zuni 53^ 

and stretching them tight, and then, spurring their horses, 
they effectually choked and dragged my recalcitrant bron- 
cos into submission. They were compelled to travel 
willy-nilly, while I " pushed " on the lines behind. After 
ten or fifteen minutes of this they seemed, all at once, 
to wake up to a new thought. Why should their necks be 
stretched by these fiendish vaqueros ahead of them, while 
other vaqueros and Indians lashed them, kicked them, 
yelled at them, on their sides, and a white man (myself) 
shouted from the rear? They came to the conclusion it 
would be easier to run away than submit to such indigni- 
ties. So off they started, evidently willing to go at full 
speed. But, unfortunately, there was no unity of pur- 
pose in their movements. One wished to rush off to 
the southwest, the other to the southeast. But it couldn't 
be done. They were fastened together. They must go 
with " one accord " and this " accord " did not exist. 
So they leaped and jumped and struggled and bucked, 
now stretching wide apart, and then rushing together 
again, so that they nearly knocked each other down and 
made the pole crack, but it was of no avail. And during 
their endeavour the vaqueros ahead, as relentless as the 
tax-collector and death, kept a taut line on their necks 
and pulled them onwards. Thus we battled, human wills 
against animal wills, but intellect, craft, cunning, with the 
aid of riatas and brute-force conquered in the end, and 
the poor animals, sweating and still snorting, trembling 
and cowed, settled down to go ahead as the reins directed. 
When we stopped for noon-day lunch they seemed glad 
of the rest, yet, when we began to harness them again to 
the buckboard we came near to having a runaway. My 
companion had to stand at their heads, while I disen- 
tangled tugs from squirming and hair-trigger legs and 
feet, which danced about in a most inconsequential man- 



54 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

ner, ready to shoot out in my direction with the force and 
speed of a catapult at the sHghtest provocation. I had 
seen men hit on legs, arms, and collar-bones with such 
feet and had heard the snap of humerus, femur, clavicle, 
etc., and I had no hankering after such experience. I 
had also seen men hit in the stomach, — possibly in the 
solar plexus, — and doubled up like jack-knives, instantly, 
and like Bret Harte's Abncr Kean of Angel's, " the sub- 
sequent proceedings interested them no more." Person- 
ally I preferred to keep my stomach, my solar plexus and 
my intestines intact. Yet to travel we must be harnessed 
up. Hence I was " distraught betwixt my fears and my 
desires." In due time, however, success crowned our 
efforts, and we were " all set." But where were our 
vaqueros to make the animals travel? The hour's rest 
had given the still-unbroken pair time to forget their 
team-work, and now, one wanted to leap ahead, while 
the other evinced a strong desire either to sit down, or to 
" back " clear to the north pole. Fortunately my com- 
panion and I both had whips. So we " laid on," yelling 
and shouting at the same time and in the same breath. I 
think our sudden onslaught must have startled the beasts 
for they bent their heads to it, " buckled in," and did their 
level best to run away. So long as the road was clear, 
fairly level, and we were able to stay with the wagon — 
no! dear reader, not stay on our seats, for we were jolted, 
jounced and thrown out of them worse than automobile 
riders with numerous successive " Thank ye, ma'ams ! " 
— we let them run. Why not ? The scared creatures 
were bound to let off superfluous steam somehow ; they 
had surplus electric energy to dispose of. Why not let 
them expend both in getting us in the direction we wished 
to travel? So I bid them "Go to it," and placed no 
tightening hand upon the rein. 



My Adventures at Zuni 55 

Ere long they sobered down ; the roads were now sandy 
and long, uphill and down, and montonously wearisome. 
Before nightfall I could crack the whip about their ears, 
aye, even lay it vigorously upon their flanks, with scarce 
a response. And when we reached our camping-ground 
that night they were jaded, tired, dejected, wretched- 
looking creatures, appearing as if they had been driven 
a thousand miles, were kept by miserly wretches, who 
never gave them proper food, and who beat and abused 
them abominably. 

The following morning we reached the top of the last 
hill. There before us was spread out the long-looked- 
for plain of Zuni. It was a great red and yellow stretch 
that reached into the far-away hill-lands to the west and 
south, distorted by mirages and sand-clouds; whilst to 
our left, a mile or two away, rising from numberless red 
sandstone foothills, towered a rock island far larger than 
either Katzimo or Acoma, possibly a thousand feet high 
and two or three miles in length along its flat top, which 
in places was chiseled and carved by the weather into 
pinnacles, spires, domes and minarets. 

This was the famous Tai-yo-al-la-ne, called by Gushing, 
Thunder Mountain, to the summit of which the Zunis 
retired and fortified themselves after the rebellion of 
1680. It was to be the scene of one of my adventures, 
somewhat exciting and a little dangerous, but withal al- 
luring and fascinating, which later on in this chapter I 
shall relate. 

The entire north side of the valley w^as closed in by a 
section of canyon-seamed brown sandstone mesas mantled 
in pinion and juniper, contrasting richly with the sky, 
which was deep turquoise and perfectly cloudless. Out 
from the middle of the rocky hill and line of sand-hills 
on which we stood, emerged the Zuni River, but it was 



56 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

only a tiny streamlet, winding its way westward across 
the sandy plain, glistening and shimmering in the after- 
noon sun, until it seemed to lose itself in the shadows of 
a good-sized hummock which arose above the horizon line 
of the far-away distance. 

This hummock was Zuni. With field-glasses one could 
clearly see the seven-storied, terraced, community house, 
on the various and many roofs of which pigmy human be- 
ings were moving about, those on the top terrace being 
clearly silhouetted against the pure blue of the New Mex- 
ico sky. 

In an hour or so our jaded horses were glad to stop 
on the further side of the tiny river, just opposite the 
pueblo. 

The first impression one has of Zuni is of a number 
of long, flat-roofed, adobe-covered houses, but connected 
with one another in extended rows and squares, piled 
one above another, lengthwise and crosswise, but getting 
smaller as they ascend, and each tier receding from the 
one in front, like the steps of a rude-shaped pyramid, 
with a base that stretches out somewhat indefinitely in 
each direction. This was the monster community house, 
which dominates all the other houses in Zuni. 

Now let us read Cushing's description, for it is as per- 
fect to-day as when it was written : 

Everywhere this structure bristled with ladder-poles, chimneys, 
and rafters. The ladders were heavy and long, with carved slab 
cross-pieces at the tops, and leaned at all angles against the roofs. 
The chimneys looked more like huge bamboo-joints than anything 
else I can compare them with, for they were made of bottomless 
earthen pots, set one upon the other and cemented together with 
mud, so that they stood up, like many-lobed. oriental spires, from 
every roof-top. Wonderfully like the holes in an ant-hill seemed 
the little windows and door-ways which everywhere pierced the 
walls of this gigantic habitation ; and like ant-hills themselves seemed 



My Adventures at Zuni 57 

the curious little round-topped ovens which stood here and there 
along these walls or on the terrace edges. 

All round the town could be seen irregular large and small 
adobe or dried-mud fences, inclosing gardens in which melon, 
pumpkin and squash vines, pepper plants and onions were most 
conspicuous. Forming an almost impregnable belt nearer the vil- 
lage were numerous stock corrals of bare cedar posts and sticks. In 
some of these, burros, or little gray, white-nosed, black-shouldered 
donkeys, were kept; while many others, with front legs tied closely 
together, were nosing about over the refuse heaps. Bob-tailed curs 
of all sizes, a few swift-footed, worried-looking black hogs, some 
scrawny chickens, and many eagles — the latter confined in wattled 
stick cages, diminutive corrals, in the corners and on the house-tops 
— made up the visible life about the place. 

The next morning I climbed to the top of the pueblo. As I 
passed terrace after terrace the little children scampered for 
sundry sky-holes, through which long ladder-arms protruded, and 
disappeared down the black apertures like frightened prairie dogs ; 
while the women, unaccustomed to the sound of shoes on their roofs, 
as suddenly appeared head and shoulders through the openings, gazed 
a moment, and then dropped out of sight. 

Five long flights passed, I stood on the topmost roof. Spread out 
below us were the blocks of smoothly plastered, flat-roofed adobe 
cells, red and yellow as the miles of plain from which they rose, 
pierced by many a black sky-hole, and ladder-poles and smoke- 
bannered chimneys were everywhere to be seen. In abrupt steps they 
descended toward the west, north and central plaza, while east- 
ward they were spread out in broad flats, broken here and there 
by deep courts. The whole mass was threaded through and through 
by narrow, often crooked, passage ways or streets, more of them 
lengthwise than crosswise, and some, like tunnels, leading under 
the houses from court to court or street to street. 

The view extended grandly from the out-lying, flat lower ter- 
races, miles away to the encircling mesa boundaries, north, east, 
and south, while westward a long, slanting notch in the low hills 
was invaded to the horizon by the sand-plain through which, like 
molten silver, the little river ran. 

Every school-boy sketches a map of the Zuni basin when he at- 
tempts with uncertain stroke to draw on his slate a cart-wheel. The 
city itself represents the jagged hub, whence the radiating, wavering 
trails form the spokes, and the surrounding mesas and hills, the 
rim. Let some crack across the slate and through the middle of the 
picture indicate the river, and your map is complete. 



58 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

In and out, on the diverging trails, the Indians were passing 
to and from their distant fields, some on foot, some on burro-back, 
with others of the little beasts loaded from tail to ears with wood, 
blankets full of melons, pumpkins and corn, or great panniers 
of peachjes. A series of them away out on the bare plain, mere 
moving specks in the distance, appeared like a caravan crossing 
a desert waste. Occasionally a half-nude rider, mounted on a 
swift-footed pony would come dashing in from the hills. Far 
away he seemed a black object with a long trail of golden dust 
behind, but his nearer approach revealed remarkable grace of 
motion and confusion of streaming hair and mane. There was 
an occasional heavily laden ox-cart, with urchins sprawling over 
the top, a driver on either side, and leading up the rear a mounted 
donkey or two ; while away to one side, more picturesque than all 
this a band of dust-shrouded sheep straggled over the slopes toward 
their mesa pastures, followed by their solitary herder and his dog. 

Strangely out of keeping with the known characteristics of the 
Indian race were the busy scenes about the smoky pueblo. All 
over the terraces were women, some busy in the alleys or at the 
corners below, husking great heaps of many-colored corn, buried 
to their bushy, black bare heads in the golden husks, while children 
romped in, out, over and under the flaky piles; others bringing the 
grain up the ladders, in blankets strapped over their foreheads, 
spread it out on the terrace roofs to dry. Many, in little groups, 
were cutting up peaches and placing them on squares of white 
cloth, or slicing pumpkins into long spiral ropes to be suspended 
to dry from the protruding rafters. 

One of these busy workers stopped, deposited her burden, and 
hailed a neighboring house-top. Almost immediately an answering 
echo issued from the red stony walls, and forthwith a pair of bare 
shoulders seemed to shove a tangled head and expectant coun- 
tenance up through an unsuspected sky-hole into the sunshine. In 
one place, with feet over-hanging the roof, a woman was grace- 
fully decorating some newly made jars, and heaps of the rude 
but exquisite bric-a-brac scattered around her, — while, over in 
a convenient shadow, sat an old blind man, busy spinning on his 
knee with a quaint bobbin-shaped spindle-whorl. 

Out near the corrals old women were building round-topped 
heaps of dried sheep dung, and depositing therein with nice care 
their freshly painted pots and bowls for burning. Others, blankets 
in hand, were screening their already blazing kilns from the wind, 
or poking the fires until eddying columns of black pungent smoke 
half hid them from my view, and made them seem like the "witches 
and cauldrons " of child-lore. 




Photograph by George Wharton James. 

MAN AND BOY, ZUNI. 



My Adventures at Zuni 59^ 

Children were everywhere, chasing one another over the terraces, 
up and down ladders, through alleys, and out again into the sun- 
light. Some, with bows and arrows, sticks and stones, were 
persecuting in mock chase dogs and hogs alike, as attested by 
their wild shrieks of delight, or the respondent ceaseless yelps arising 
seemingly from all quarters of the town at once. 

Along the muddy river below the long southern side of the 
pueblo, more of these youngsters were ducking one another, or 
playing at various games on the smooth, sandy banks. Women, too, 
were there engaged in washing wool or blankets on the flat stones, 
or in cleansing great baskets of corn. I was attracted thither and 
observed that these primitive laundresses had to raise the water 
with little dams of sand. I smiled as the thought occurred that 
the first expedition of Americans to Zuni had been sent here by 
Government to explore this self -same river, relative to its navigabil- 
ity. 

These sights led Gushing to sohloquize, or to philo- 
sophize, as follows : 

How strangely parallel, I thought, have been the lines of develop- 
ment in this curious civilization of an American desert, with those 
of Eastern nations and deserts. Clad in blanket dresses, mantles 
thrown gracefully over their heads, each with a curiously decorated 
jar in her hand, the women came one after another down the 
crooked paths. A little passage-way through the gardens, between 
two adobe walls to our right, led down rude steps into the well, 
which, dug deeply in the sands, had been walled up with rocks, 
like the Pools of Palestine, and roofed over with reeds and dirt. 
Into this passage-way and down to the dark, covered spring they 
turned, or lingered outside to gossip with new comers while 
awaiting their chances, meanwhile slyly watching, from under 
their black hair, the strange visitors from " Wa-sin-to-na." These 
water-carriers were a picturesque sight, as, with stately step and 
fine carriage they followed one another up into the evening light, 
balancing their great shining water-jars on their heads. 

Let us seek to know more of the Zuni of to-day as 
it is in its everyday life. We meet a Zuni man. He is 
not tall, say about five feet six inches, solidly built, with 
the appearance and carriage of an athlete. His dress is 
of white calico and consists of a kind of shirt or jacket, 



60 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

and a pair of trousers that are slit from the knee down. 
He wears blue stockings, kept in place with vividly scarlet 
garters — bands about two inches wide and beautifully 
woven — and his feet are covered with thick-soled buck- 
skin moccasins. On his head is a handkerchief tied 
around the forehead, and called by the Spaniards, 
" banda." As we meet him he gives us a word of greet- 
ing and advances. We take his hand and breathe on 
it. At this he smiles and does the like to us. Now we 
notice that he has several strings of shell-beads around 
his neck, in which are placed pieces of turquoise, and a 
leather belt around his waist, on which are fastened sev- 
eral large silver disks, chased or engraved into certain 
curious and striking designs. 

The women are smaller than the men, with shapely 
arms, hands, and feet. None of the younger ones are 
corpulent, though some of the older ones become quite 
stout. They are good-looking, have large limpid black 
and brown eyes, which are generally laughing and ten- 
der. To their friends they are kindly and affectionate, 
motherly and compassionate, loyal and helpful. 

Their dress is picturesque in the extreme. The gown 
is home-woven — generally by the men — of black diag- 
onal cloth, embroidered top and bottom in blue. It is in 
one piece, and is folded once and sewn up to within a 
short distance from the top, and again the top edges are 
caught together for a few inches. The right arm passes 
through the opening and thus the right shoulder is draped 
while the left arm is bare as the gown passes under the 
arm. It generally reaches well down to the knee. Of 
late years a cotton garment with high neck and long 
sleeves is worn under the gown, but at all ceremonials 
this is discarded. At the waist a long belt is wrapped 
several times. This is of bright red and blue colour and 



My Adventures at Zuni 61 

its ends have a long fringe. As this end is tucked under 
and the fringe falls it adds a very attractive and pic- 
turesque touch. 

Another indispensable article of dress, the use of which 
a white man cannot comprehend, is the pi'toni, a piece of 
cahco — sometimes made of two very large bandana 
handkerchiefs sewed together — tied in front of the neck 
and allowed to fall over the shoulders. And she must 
be poor indeed who has no necklace of silver beads (na- 
tive made), with several strings of shell-bead or wam- 
pum. The legs are wrapped around and around with 
wide pieces of buckskin, giving them a heavy and clumsy 
look, though they set off the smallness of the feet which 
are clothed in buckskin moccasins. 

The hair is banged all around down almost to the 
shoulders, and then tucked up in front under the fore- 
head to allow the face to appear. 

The children are many and various, of all sizes and 
both sexes, but all alike healthy, happy, vigorous and 
naked until they reach the age of six or seven. When I 
first visited them, more than twenty years ago, they ran 
about nude until they reached the age of puberty. 

Owing to their isolation the Zuni Indians have pre- 
served a strong individuality. Like the Navahos they are 
readily distinguished. They have few mixed bloods 
among them. 

Their natural impulse is towards the highest type of 
hospitality. They do not invite you; they expect you. 
In other words, if you enter a Zuni house and express 
your intention of staying in the town for any length of 
time it is taken for granted that you will make that 
your home as long as you stay. Food is prepared for 
you, and happy indeed are they when you accept and 
eat with them. I well remember my first meal with 



62 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

Tsnahey and his family. He was then Governor of the 
Zunis. The food was spread out on our table — which 
was the floor. It was the time of green corn, and one 
dish was of a mush made of ground green corn, flavoured 
with certain wild herbs. It was delicious. Then a kind 
of mutton stew was served, consisting of small cubes of 
mutton, squash, beans, corn, and chili pepper, which latter 
they use largely in many of their dishes. 

We also had " hewe " or wafer bread and tortillas, 
the latter made in Mexican fashion. Tsnahey was some- 
what " civilized," so coffee was served, sweetened with 
white man's sugar. Then we had for dessert stewed 
dried peaches — these latter gained from the Havasupai 
Indians, who dwell deep down in a secluded canyon, not 
far from the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, to 
which their canyon is tributary. 

It was an interesting meal in which the most scrupu- 
lous care was taken to please the guest, to see that he was 
served first and abundantly, and that everything was to 
his pleasure. 

Let us watch Tsnahey's wife make the wafer bread, 
which is so strange and interesting at first sight. It is 
made of corn meal finely ground. Of this a soft batter 
is made. Now it is ready to bake. A large flat stone is 
raised so that a fire can be made underneath it. When 
the stone is hot enough, a piece of mutton tallow is rap- 
idly rubbed over its surface, and then the " hewe "-maker 
dips her fingers in the batter and rapidly rubs them over 
the hot surface. Almost the moment she touches the slab 
the batter cooks into a thin, wafer-like sheet, so that, at 
two or three dips and passages over the surface, there 
appears a large sheet of the bread. Before it is per- 
fectly dry it is folded over and over again until it is 
about the size of a shredded-wheat biscuit and then it is 




WE-WHA, THE REMARKABLE ZUNI CHARACTER WHO VISITED 
PRESIDENT CLEVELAND. 



My Adventures at Zuni 63 

ready to be eaten. Naturally it is dainty, delicate, and 
makes a very palatable bread. 

The sleeping-arrangements of the Zunis are quite sim- 
ple. In one corner of every well-appointed house hangs 
a long pole, suspended by thongs of rawhide at each end. 
This is poetically termed " the pole of the soft stuff." 
The term soft stuff includes sheep and goat skins, bear, 
coyote, mountain-lion, badger, and other wild-beast skins, 
together with the robes the Zunis themselves weave or 
purchase from the Navahos. While a few blankets are 
woven by the Zunis they have almost abandoned the art, 
as they are better potters than weavers. 

It is appropriate here that I give a brief account of 
We-wha, a noted Zuni woman, whose death caused a 
trial for witchcraft as related in another chapter. She 
was a remarkable woman, a fine blanket and sash maker, 
an excellent cook, an adept in all the work of her sex, 
and yet strange to say, she was a man. There never has 
been, as yet, any satisfactory explanation given, as far 
as I know, of the peculiar custom followed by the Pueblos 
of having one or two men in each tribe, who forswear 
their manhood and who dress as, act like, and seemingly 
live the life of, women. Wewha was one of these. Mrs. 
Stevenson, in referring to what she owed to Wewha for 
her help in opening up the secrets of Zuni life, writes 
in such a way that no reader can tell whether she re- 
garded her as man or woman. She said after many other 
persons to whom she was indebted " And Wewha, the 
strongest character and the most intelligent of the Zuni 
tribe within the knowledge of the writer." 

So bright was she that President Cleveland invited 
her to visit him at the White House, where she was his 
honoured and interesting guest for several days. On my 
various visits to Zuni she always befriended me, and it 



64 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

was the comments of her own friends, Ziinis, that first 
made me " wise " to the situation as to her sex. She was 
an expert weaver, and her " pole of soft stuff " was laden 
with the work of her loom — blankets and dresses ex- 
quisitely woven, and with a delicate perception of colour- 
values that delighted the eye of a connoisseur. Her 
sashes, too, were the finest I ever saw, and proud indeed 
is that collector who can boast of one of her weave among 
his valued treasures. 

Her living-room and kitchen, where cooking the corn, 
grinding, and all other daily duties were carried on, 
was one large room, here shown, with Wewha at the 
grinding trough. She seldom sang at her grinding, but at 
a word from her, I have heard as many as a half hun- 
dred voices all raised at once in one wonderful unison 
of melody, from all parts of the pueblo as the women 
ground their corn and sang simultaneously. 

By the way, on the day I made the photograph We- 
wha's mother was making cactus, or prickly pear, jam. 
I watched the process with much interest. Impaling the 
prickly fruit with a wooden skewer, she deftly peeled 
off the skin with a modern case-knife. Knowing how 
full of seeds the pear was, I sat wondering how these were 
eliminated. In a few moments I was informed. As fast 
as she peeled the fruit she nonchalantly tossed it into 
her mouth, keeping up a continuous chewing, while out of 
the northeast corner of her mouth flowed a steady stream 
of seeds (which were rejected), and from the south- 
west corner came the jam, which was caught in her fin- 
gers, thrown into the boiling pot and thus cooked. 

I have never eaten any kind of Indian jam since. 

One of the most interesting adventures of my life oc- 
curred on a visit paid to Thunder Mountain. Tsnahey, 
his son, and another youth, were my guides. I was ac- 



My Adventures at Zuni 65 

companied by F. H. Maude, of Los Angeles, Calif., as 
photographer. I had asked that we be taken up by the 
"Old Trail" — the one used by the Zunis when they 
lived on the summit of Tai-yo-al-la-ne. At first he said 
it was impossible. The storms of the centuries had 
washed it out so that it was impracticable. 

" Can you go up it? " I asked. 

" Yes," was the reply. 

" Then," said I, " we'll go too." 

But we took along several stout ropes, to aid in case 
of emergency, and it was well that we did. We came to 
places where all traces of the trail were gone. At others 
we had to be hoisted up by sheer strength, the Indians 
having scaled the cliffs and the three of them finding 
it pretty hard work to drag us up to their level. On the 
summit we found the ruins of the homes, occupied by the 
rebellious Zunis, after 1680, and there Tsnahey took us 
to the shrine we had come especially to see. It was of 
Ma-a-si-lima and Ah-a-yu-ta, the twin gods of war. 
To our surprise there was not one figure of the god, but 
a score or more. It was evident that a new figure was 
brought up at intervals, possibly each year, and it took 
the place of honour, the older figures being placed, one 
on each side of it and allowed to remain, until they, 
in turn, were displaced by newer " gods." The discarded 
gods were stacked up in a pile, like cord-wood, behind 
the shrine. In front of it pahos, or prayer sticks, and 
plumes were stuck into the ground in regular order. 
Seeing so many gods I laughingly turned to Dick and 
suggested that I take one or two of them away with me. 
Horrified at the mere suggestion, he exclaimed : " You 
take 'em, Maasilima heap mad. Pretty quick I dry 
up and blow away." 

This was a punishment not even the Huns have yet 



66 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

invented, so I forwent the pleasure of becoming the owner 
of a god. But I am free to confess my cupidity was 
aroused. Later it was to be satisfied. 

This was the shrine thus spoken of by Gushing in 
his third Century article : 

Perhaps the Priesthood of the Bow is the only truly esoteric 
of all these bodies, since members of it may be admitted to meet- 
ings of all the others, while members of the other societies are 
strictly excluded from the meeting of this. 

Early learning this, I strove for nearly two years to gain mem- 
bership in it, which would secure at once standing with the tribe 
and entrance to all sacred meetings, as well as eligibility to the Head 
Chieftaincies. I succeeded, and the memory of my experiences 
in this connection is to me the most interesting chapter of my 
Zuni life. 

The orders were engaged in their annual ceremonials, of which 
little was told or shown me ; but, at the end of four days, I heard one 
morning a deep whirring noise. Running out, I saw a procession 
of three Priests of the Bozv, in plumed helmets and closely-fitting 
cuirasses, both of thick buckskin — gorgeous and solemn with sacred 
embroideries and war-paint, begirt with bows, arrows, and war- 
clubs, and each distinguished by his badge of degree, — coming down 
one of the narrow streets. The principal priest carried in his arm 
a wooden idol, ferocious in aspect, yet beautiful with its decora- 
tions of shell, turquoise, and brilliant paint. It was nearly hidden 
by symbolic slats and prayer-sticks most elaborately plumed. He 
was preceded by a guardian with drawn bow and arrows, while 
another followed, twirling the sounding slat which had attracted 
alike my attention and that of hundreds of the Indians, who hur- 
riedly flocked to the roofs of the adjacent houses or lined the 
street, bowing their heads in adoration, and scattering sacred 
prayer-meal on the god and his attendant priests. Slowly they 
wound their way down the hill, across the river, and off toward the 
mountain of Thunder. Soon an identical procession followed and 
took its way toward the western hills. I watched them long 
until they disappeared, and a few hours afterward there arose from 
the top of " Thunder Mountain " a dense column of smoke, simul- 
taneously with another from the more distant western mesa of 
" U-ha-na-mi " or " Mount of the Beloved." 

Then they told me that for four days I must neither touch nor 
eat flesh or oil of any kind, and for ten days neither throw any 
refuse from my doors, nor permit a spark to leave my house, for 



My Adventures at Zuni 67 

" This was the season of the year when the ' grandmother of men ' 
(fire) was precious." 

Since my admission to the Priesthood of the Bow, I have been 
elected to the office of guardian to these gods ; have twice accom- 
panied them to their distant lofty shrines, where, with many pray- 
ers, chants, and invocations, they are placed in front of their prede- 
cessors of centuries' accumulation. Poetic in name and ascribed na- 
ture are these cherished and adored gods of war: one is called 
" A-hai-iu-ta," and the other " Ma-tsai-le-ma," and they are believed 
to be single in spirit, yet dual in form, the child or children of 
the God of the Sun, and to guard from year to year, from sunrise 
to sunset, the vale and children of those they were first sent to 
redeem and guide. These children receive without question the 
messages interpreted by their priests from year to year, which un- 
failingly shape the destinies of their nation toward the " encircling 
cities of mankind." 

Now, while I was much gratified at the sight of this 
shrine, a desire sprang up within me to see another of 
which I had read no description nor heard any mention. 
One night in the home of one of the chief priests, where 
I was supposed to be sleeping, I had heard him praying 
to a god, whom he called U-nah-i-kah. Breathlessly I 
listened to his soft and gentle voice and from something 
he said I gathered that a new figure of the god either 
had been, or soon was to be, deposited at his shrine which 
was on Taiyoallane. There was nothing certain as to 
this location, but I received a vague impression to that 
effect. Strange to say I never thought of the matter 
again until I was arguing with Dick (Tsnahey) at the 
shrine of the twin gods of war. He had refused so posi- 
tively to consent to my taking one of the figures that I 
felt a little piqued, and suddenly there flashed into my 
mind the thought that possibly I could discover another 
shrine, and obtain therefrom a most precious " idol." 
Acting upon this " hunch " I turned to Dick and asked 
him to take me to the shrine of Unahikah. The moment 
the name was uttered I saw I had struck something rich 



68 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

in mystery. For Dick, through his bronze skin, turned 
pale, and utter consternation came over him. There is 
no question but that he was profoundly disturbed. Fal- 
teringly he asked what I knew of Unahikah. Resolutely 
I dared to follow my " hunch " to the utmost. I declared 
I knew much about him ; that he had a shrine on Taiyoal- 
lane; that a god had recently been placed there which I 
was determined to see, and now I forthwith commanded 
him to take me there. 

With tears in his eyes he protested that he did not 
know of any such shrine. None knew, not even of the 
best informed of the Zunis, — only the chief Warrior 
Priest. 

It didn't make any difference, I said, I had come to see 
that shrine and I was going to see it, so the sooner he 
found it the better, as none of us would leave the moun- 
tain until it was found. 

In vain Dick argued, pleaded, remonstrated, with me. 
My pitiless reply was " The shrine must be found." In 
despair, at last, he gave it up, and sat disconsolately upon 
the ground, refusing to go further. I had noticed, dur- 
ing this time, that Dick's son seemed to want to say or 
do something, and at this juncture he beckoned me aside. 
Hesitatingly, and apparently half reluctantly and fear- 
fully, he confessed that he knew where the shrine of 
Unahikah was. I knew that he had attended one of our 
Indian Schools, — Carlisle, perhaps, — and inferred from 
his somewhat irreverent talk, afterwards supplemented 
by my questionings, that he had come to the conclusion 
that all the ceremonies of his people were foolish, unneces- 
sary, and purely the results of superstition. With the 
boldness of this belief he had played eavesdropper to the 
chief priest on several occasions, had seen one of the 
figures of Unahikah, knew that it would soon have to be 



My Adventures at Zuni 69 

placed in its own shrine, and, therefore, he had watched 
and secretly followed the priest when he carried it away. 

The young man, also, had learned something else from 
his white associations and teaching. After his explana- 
tions, his earnest query was : " What you give me, I 
show you Unahikah ? " It took me some little time to 
decide, hardly so much perhaps to reconcile my conscience 
to the step I was about to take, as to think of the best 
way of compassing my desires. Anyhow we made a 
suitable compact, and to Dick's great surprise, when we 
returned to him, said we were going to see the shrine. 

Again he asserted that he — though a Governor of the 
pueblo — had never seen it, and did not know of any 
one else, save the chief warrior priest, who had done so. 
After half an hour's walk or less we had crossed the mesa, 
and stopped. The youth began to look around, and so 
did I. Suddenly I heard his voice, somewhat muffled 
it seemed, calling : " You come." 

I turned, but he had disappeared. Again the call 
came : " You come ! " 

This time, going to the edge of the clifif and looking 
down I saw him standing on a finger of rock, thrust out 
from the face of the fearful precipice, and beckoning 
me to descend. Instinctively I shrank back. How far 
down it was I could not then, and cannot now, tell. It 
seemed a thousand, two, five, ten thousand feet. 

Tying one of the strongest ropes around me I bade 
Dick and the others hold on to it and carefully lower me 
down. When I stood safely on the rock-finger I looked 
— as it were — into the heart of the clifif. There, caused 
by the falling away of a curved mass of rock, was created 
a narrow recess, some eight or ten feet high, and in that 
space, lined up in an irregular row, were the figures of 
Unahikah, deposited during the centuries. There were 



70 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

about twenty of them, in all, and every one, even the 
newest, had never known the touch of white man's steel. 
They were all cut and carved with the rude flint knives 
of the Zunis, as their hacked edges showed. The surfaces 
were smoothed off, doubtless scraped with the same kind 
of implement. 

After my photographer had been lowered, had made 
a number of photographs, and had returned to the top 
of the mesa, an interesting little colloquy took place be- 
tween Dick and myself : 

" All right, Dick, you go! " — with a wave of the hand 
toward the ascent. 

Dick. " No, you go ! " with a strong motion of dissent. 

/. " What for you no go? You go and I come." 

Dick. " No ! I no go ! You go ! " 

/. "What's all this about? Why you no go?" 

Dick. "I sabe you stay. You catch 'em Unahikah. 
He get heap mad you take 'em and pretty quick I die. I 
no go ! " 

Dick's perceptions, or intuitions, or whatever else they 
might be called, were correct. I did intend to take one 
of the " idols," nay, I had resolved to take tzvo. But 
Dick's resolute demeanour somewhat shook my assurance. 
I then began to negotiate, and as soon as I found I could 
negotiate, — in other words that it was not a matter of 
principle with Dick, but merely a question of graft, — I 
was inflexible. I offered to send him a barrel of shells 
for the purpose of making shell-beads (or wampum) for 
necklaces; to take upon myself all the anger of Unahikah, 
should he regard my action as a desecration of his shrine ; 
that I would securely wrap up the " gods " and not allow 
them to be unwrapped while repacking them in Zuni ; that 
I would not return to Zuni until after dark, and would 
then immediately pack up and leave the pueblo with my 



My Adventures at Zuni 71 

ill-gotten treasures before daylight. All these things I 
solemnly promised, and faithfully I kept my word. The 
only wrap I had for the " gods," however, was my coat. 
As night came on it was intensely cold and I suffered con- 
siderably, but my word was pledged, and, chilled to the 
marrow, we drove back to Zuni. On my return, after a 
hot supper and a thawing out, our packing was done, and 
long before the dawn of day, Mr. Maude and myself 
were on our way to Las Tinajas. 

The two figures of Unahikah are now in my posses- 
sion, and as I have not dried up, been blown away, or had 
any other fearful thing happen to me, I am fain to be- 
lieve that the conduct I have related has not brought upon 
me either the censure, disapprobation, or vengeance of 
the gods. 

A few years after this first and only attempt at plunder- 
ing a sacred shrine I ever made — even though this was 
successful — I was lecturing in Brooklyn at the same 
time as Lieut. Gushing. We met several times and I 
enjoyed his chats on Zuni amazingly. When I showed 
him the picture of the two wooden figures of Unahikah 
and told him the foregoing story he expressed himself 
as more than surprised. He confessed he had never 
seen the shrine and had never heard of it. Mrs. Steven- 
son said the same when I visited her at her ranch house, 
near Espafiola, N. M., a few years before she died. 
She was keenly interested, took careful notes, as I de- 
scribed the location of the shrine as near as I could re- 
member, and evidently availed herself of the informa- 
tion thus given. For, in her colossal monograph on the 
Zunis, the 23rd Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnol- 
ogy, she gives a photograph (opposite p. 607) showing 
six of these wooden figures. The title placed under them 
is " Idols of Elder God of War from Ancient Gave 



72 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

Shrine, West Walls of To'wa Yallanne (Corn Moun- 
tain)." Nowhere in the text, however, does she write 
of the shrine, except the mere announcement as to the 
picture. 

In the earlier pages of the work she refers to Ahayuta 
as the Elder God of War, but both Gushing and myself 
gained the idea that Ahayuta and Maasilime were the 
" twin gods of war." Possibly further study on the part 
of some ethnologist who gains the confidence of the Zuni 
native priesthood will solve the question. 

On one of our visits to Taiyoallane we were much im- 
pressed by two immense stone pillars of erosion which 
stood at one end of the mesa top. Seen from below, out- 
lined against the pure blue of the sky they were slender 
and graceful, almost as if carved by human hands, but as 
one approached nearer to them, on ascending the trail, 
or viewed them from the level top of the mesa, they were 
rude and rugged pillars carved by nature's forces into 
the shapes they now present. 

Knowing that every such object is held in veneration 
by all Indians, and that those living near them seldom fail 
to have legends to account for them I questioned my Zuni 
friends until I learned the following romantic and pa- 
thetic legend. In the long, long ago the Zunis were very 
wicked, and in spite of the continued warnings of Those 
Above, they persisted in their evil doings, until the 
Shadow People determined to destroy them from the face 
of the earth. Accordingly the two great water sources 
of the world were opened — the Reservoir of the Above 
from which all rains descend, and the Reservoir of the 
Below, from which all springs, creeks and rivers receive 
their flow. The very plugs were withdrawn, and the rain 
poured down, and the floods arose, until the Zunis knew 
the wrath of the gods was falling upon them. Hastily 




Photograpli by George Wharton James. 

THE PILLARS KNOWN AS "THE CAIQUE'S SON AND DAUGHTER," 
ON TAIYOALLANE, NEAR ZUNI. 



My Adventures at Zuni 73 

they fled to the summit of Taiyoallane where the younger 
ones of the wicked and profane laughed at the fears of 
the others, and openly scoffed at the idea that even the 
floods of the heavens above and of the under world be- 
neath could ever rise so high as to reach them. But 
slowly and surely the water arose. Higher and higher it 
came, until even the scoffers were silenced, and dumb 
dread filled their souls. In vain the priests of the various 
brotherhoods danced and sang, prayed and made the 
big smoke, made medicine and offered gifts. The anger 
of Those Above would not be turned away. At last the 
chief of the priests went away to a quiet part of the 
mountain summit where he could meditate and pray and 
more especially intercede for his people. He finally 
came back and said that Those Above could have their 
anger turned away from them in one way only. The 
choicest of the young men and the fairest and sweetest of 
the young maidens must be prepared for sacrifice, and 
then, with appropriate ceremonies, be flung into the 
waters. Thus could the wrath of the gods be appeased 
and their anger turned away. Sadly the people listened, 
and then discussed as to who should be offered as the 
needful sacrifice, A youth was found, handsome as a 
young god, athletic, healthful, radiant, fine-featured, be- 
loved by all. Then, while no one dared whisper it, the 
thought went through the minds of all that the only 
maiden worthy was the beloved only daughter of their 
revered cacique. When he looked up to see whom the 
people had chosen and there was no maiden there, tears 
sprang into his eyes. Calling his sweet daughter to him 
he said a few words to which she reverently bowed her 
head. Taking her stand beside the youth, those pres- 
ent knew that the sacrifice would be complete. Carefully 
robing them both in their finest ceremonial costumes, 



74 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

placing suitable decorations in their hair, around their 
arms and in their hands, the young pair were made ready. 
Then, slowly and quietly, but increasing in volume and 
agony, the death wail was sung, after which the cacique, 
blessing them both, and invoking the pardon of Those 
Above to be gained at so great a cost, flung them head 
long into the seething, swirling, angry waters. It was 
done not a moment too soon, for already the throng was 
standing on the small piece of high land left on the 
mesa top, with water completely surrounding them. 

In less than an hour the water had gained its height, 
and began to subside. Days and weeks passed, however, 
before the valley was dry and the chastened people could 
return to their homes. 

Not long after this one of the youths who had been 
foremost in wickedness happened to look up toward 
Taiyoallane and there saw two figures standing out clear 
and plain from the mesa top. Calling to his people, they 
were soon gazing with wonderment and awe at the sight, 
knowing that Those Above had given this to them as a 
sign. This was confirmed when the cacique solemnly as- 
sured them that these were the heaven-made images of 
their loved ones given as a sacrifice. The outer and 
large one was the youth, the inner and smaller was the 
maiden. 

" But," said I to my informant, after thanking him for 
the beautiful story, " there are six figures or pillars up 
there, and not merely two." 

" Ah," was the reply, " the youth and maiden cried out 
to Those Above that they were lonesome, so the gods mar- 
ried them, and by and by, four children, two boys and two 
girls, came to make them happy." 

Thus the simple-hearted Zunis teach their youth the 
evil of sin, the need of self-sacrifice, the compassion of 



My Adventures at Zuni 75 

Those Above, by means of the carvings made in their 
mountains by wind and water, storm and sand. 

No account of Zuni would be complete without a de- 
scription of one of the great ceremonial dances for which 
it has long been famous, — dances that are now attract- 
ing hundreds of visitors each year. No later writer has 
equaled Gushing in the vividness of his description of 
one of these dances and its accompaniments. It reveals, 
with wonderful clarity, some of the superstitions of the 
Zunis, and how he overcame their opposition and preju- 
dice to his picture-making and writing. He says: 

Although kinder than ever, the governor continued just as faith- 
fully his nightly vigils. One night, after sitting close beside me, 
examining every word I wrote, he threw away his cigarette, and 
informed me that " it was not well for me to make any more marks 
on the paper — it was of no use." As I calmly persisted, the next 
night a grave council was held. It was in the same room, and 
as I lay in my hammock listening to the proceedings, the discussion 
grew louder and more and more excited, the subjects evidently be- 
ing my papers and myself. 

When at a late hour the council broke up, the governor ap- 
proached me, candle in hand, and intently regarded my face for 
several minutes. He then said: 

"The Kea-k'ok-shi (Sacred Dance) is coming to-morrow. What 
think you ? " 

" I think it will rain." 

" And / think," said he, as he set his mouth and glared at me with 
his black eyes, " that you will not see the Kea-k'ok-shi when it comes 
to-morrow." 

"/ think I shall," was my reply. 

Next morning before I was awake, the herald and two or three 
tinientes had come in, and, as I arose, were sitting along the side 
of the house. The old head chief had just prepared my morning 
meal, and gone out after something. I greeted all pleasantly and 
sat down to eat. Before I had half finished I heard the rattle and 
drum of the coming dance. I hastily jumped up, took my leather 
book-pouch from the antlers, and strapping it across my shoulder, 
started for the door. Two of the chiefs rushed ahead of me, caught 
me by the arms, and quietly remarked that it would be well for me 
to finish my breakfast. I asked them if the dance was coming. 



76 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

They said they didn't know. I replied that I did, and that I was 
going out to see it. 

" Leave your books and pencils behind, then," said they. 

" No, I must carry them wherever I go." 

" If you put the shadows of the great dance down on the leaves 
of your books to-day, we shall cut them to pieces," they threatened. 

Suddenly wrenching away from them, I pulled a knife out from 
the bottom of my pouch, and, bracing up against the wall, brandished 
it and said that whatever hand grabbed my arm again would be cut 
off, that whoever cut my books to pieces would only cut himself to 
pieces with my knife. It was a doubtful game of bluff, but the 
chiefs fell back a little, and I darted through the door. Although 
they followed me throughout the whole day, they did not again offer 
to molest me, but the people gathered so closely around me that I 
could scarcely find opportunity for sketching. 

As the month of November approached, the cold rains began to 
fall. Frost destroyed the corn-plants and vines. Ice formed over 
the river by night to linger a little while in the morning, then be 
chased away by the midday sun. Not in the least did these fore-run- 
ners of a severe winter cause the dance ceremonials to abate. The 
Indians were, to some extent, reassured, when, on the occasion of 
the next dance, which happened to be a repetition of the first, I 
did little or no sketching. At another dance, however, I resumed 
the hated practice, which made matters worse than before. A 
second council was called. Of this, however, I knew nothing until 
afterward told by the old chief. It seems that it was a secret. 
It discussed various plans for either disposing of me, or compelling 
me to desist. Among others was the proposal that I be thrown 
off the great mesa, as were the two " children of the angry 
water," but it was urged that should this be done, " Wa-sin-to-nia " 
might visit my death on the whole nation. In order to avoid this 
difficulty, others suggested that I be ha-thli-kivish-k-ia (condemned 
of sorcery) and executed. They claimed that sorcery was such a 
heinous crime that my execution would be pardoned, if repre- 
sented to the Americans as the consequence of it. But some of the 
councilors reminded the others that the Americans had no sorcer- 
ers among them, and were ignorant of witchcraft. 

At last a plan was hit upon which the simple natives thought 
would free them from all their perplexities. Surely, no objection 
could be offered to the " death of a Navaho." Forthwith the Knife 
Dance was ordered, as it was thought possible that the appearance 
of this dance would be sufficient to intimidate me, without recourse 
to additional violence. 

One morning thereafter, the old chief appeared graver and more 



My Adventures at Zuni 77 

affectionate toward me than usual. He told me the " Ho-mah-tchi 
was coming, — a very sa-niu (ill-natured) dance," and suggested 
that " it would be well for me not to sketch it." Unaware either of 
the council or of the functions of the angry dance, I persisted. The 
old man, a little vexed, exclaimed, " Oh, well, of course, a fool al- 
ways makes a fool of himself." But he said no more, and I assigned, 
as the cause of his remarks, superstitious reasons, rather than any 
solicitude for my safety. 

When the great dance appeared, the governor seemed desirous of 
keeping me at home. During most of the morning I humoured him 
in this. At last, however, fearing I would miss some important 
ceremonial, I stole out across the house-tops and took a position on 
one of the terraces of the dance court. 

The dancers filed in through the covered way, preceded by a priest, 
and arranged themselves in a line across the court. Their costumes 
were not unlike those of the first dance I had witnessed, save that 
the masks were flatter and smeared with blood, and the beards and 
hair were long and streaming. In their right hands the performers 
carried huge, leaf-shaped, blood-stained knives of stone, which, dur- 
ing the movements of the dance, they brandished wildly in the air, 
in time and accompaniment to their wild song and regular steps, 
often pointing them toward me. 

As the day advanced, spectators began to throng the terraces and 
court, few, however, approaching to where I was sitting ; and 'the 
masked clowns made their appearance. 

I had been busy with memoranda and had succeeded in sketching 
three or four of the costumes, when there dashed into the court two 
remarkable characters. Their bodies, nude, save for short breech- 
clouts, were painted with ashes. Skull-caps, tufted with split corn- 
husks, and heavy streaks of black under their eyes and over their 
mouths, gave them a most ghastly and ferocious appearance. Each 
wore around his neck a short, twisted rope of black fiber, and each 
was armed with a war-club or ladder-round. 

A brief intermission in the dance was the signal for a loud and 
excited harangue on the part of the two, which, at first greeted with 
laughter, was soon received with absolute silence, even by the chil- 
dren. Soon they began to point wildly at me with their clubs. 
Unable as I was to understand all they had been saying, I at first 
regarded it all as a joke, like those of the Keo-yi-mo-shi, until one 
shouted out to the other, " Kill him ! kill him ! " and the women and 
children, excitedly rising, rushed for the doorways or gathered closer 
to one another. Instantly, the larger one approached the ladder 
near the top of which I sat, brandishing his war-club at me. Sav- 
agely striking the rounds and poles, he began to ascend. A few 



78 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

Indians had collected behind me, and a host of them stood all 
around in front. Therefore, I realized that in case of violence, 
escape would be impossible. 

I forced a laugh, quickly drew my hunting-knife from the bottom 
of the pouch, waved it two or three times in the air so that it flashed 
in the sunlight, and laid it conspicuously in front of me. Still smil- 
ing, I carefully placed my book — open — by the side of the pouch 
and laid a stone on it to show that I intended to resume the sketch- 
ing. Then I half rose, clinging to the ladder-pole with one hand, 
and holding the other in readiness to clutch the knife. The one 
below suddenly grabbed the skirt of the other and shouted, " Hold 
on, he is a ki-he! a ki-he!'^ We have been mistaken. This is no 
Navaho." Jumping down to the ground, the one thus addressed 
glanced up at me for an instant, waved his war-club in the air, 
breathed from it, and echoed the words of his companion, while the 
spectators wildly shouted applause. The two held a hurried con- 
ference. They swore they must " kill a Navaho," and dashed 
through the crowd and passage-way out of the court. 

The Keo-yi-mo-shi, freed from their restraint, rushed about with 
incessant jabber, and turned their warty eyes constantly in my direc- 
tion. As I replaced my knife and resumed the sketching, the eyes 
of nearly the whole assemblage were turned toward me, and the 
applause, mingled with loud remarks, was redoubled. Some of the 
old men even came up and patted me on the head, or breathed on 
my hands and from their own. 

Presently a prolonged howl outside the court attracted the atten- 
tion of all, and the frantic pair rushed in through the covered way, 
dragging by the tail and hind legs a big yelping, snapping, shaggy 
yellow dog. " We have found a Navaho," exclaimed one, as they 
threw the dog violently against the ground. While he was cringing 
before them, they began an erratic dance, wildly gesticulating and 
brandishing their clubs, and interjecting their snatches of song with 
short speeches. Suddenly, one of them struck the brute across the 
muzzle with his war-club, and a well-directed blow from the other 
broke its back. While it was yet gasping and struggling, the smaller 
one of the two rushed about frantically, yelling, " A knife, a knife." 
One was thrown down to him. Snatching it up, he grabbed the ani- 
mal and made a gash in its viscera. The scene which followed was 
too disgusting for description. It finds parallel only in some of the 
war ceremonials of the Aztecs, or in the animal sacrifices of the 

1 Kihe is an archaic term for " friend." It is now used to signify 
a spiritual friend, or one who is endowed with sacred powers for the 
good of mankind. 



My Adventures at Zuni 79 

savages of the far Northwest. Let it suffice that what remained 
of the dog at sunset, when the dance ended, was reluctantly given 
over to its former owner by the hideous pair. 

Whether the Indians had really designed to murder me, or merely 
to intimidate me, my coolness, as well as my waving of the knife 
toward the sun, both largely accidental, had made a great impression 
on them. For never afterward was I molested to any serious extent 
in attempting to make notes and sketches.^ 

1 This and the former quotation are from Lieut. Cushing's inter- 
esting articles in the Century Magasine. 



CHAPTER VII 

AMONG THE WITCHES 

It seems incredible that in this age of progressive 
civiHzation there should be those who believe in witches 
and witchcraft. Yet it is the fact. I have been pres- 
ent at several witchcraft trials both among the Mexicans 
and the Indians of New Mexico. One race believes in 
witchcraft just about as much as the other, and to both 
it is a desperate crime deserving a desperate remedy. 

Mrs. Stevenson, in her exhaustive monograph upon the 
Zunis, gives a finely philosophical analysis of witchcraft 
as understood, practiced and exercised by the Zunis. It 
is a valuable contribution to the literature of the subject 
and well worthy a place in these page's. She says : 

Belief in witchcraft seems to be universal among the Indian tribes, 
and no great advance in civilization can be made among them until 
the beliefs and the accompanying practices are rooted out. It can- 
not be hoped that this v^^ill be accomplished at once, at least if 
strangers to the religion and social customs of the people undertake 
the task. When it is remembered how recently reputed witches were 
put to death among our own people, and how persistently the ne- 
groes and the more ignorant whites still cling to the belief, what 
can be expected from peoples in that stage of culture where super- 
stition is the prime factor in their lives? 

Primitive man is less happy in his philosophy than enlightened 
man, because the latter has left behind many of his superstitions. 
The primitive man's world abounds in perplexing mysteries. All 
that his untutored mind fails to comprehend is associated with some 
occult power. This is the condition in which we find the North 
American Indians. These people are in constant terror of being 
conjured. Young mothers especially are solicitous for their infants, 
since these are the targets for the venom of diabolical beings. The 
child's head and face are always covered when a supposed witch 

80 



Among the Witches 81 



approaches. Again, no man or woman who is reduced to poverty 
or has some physical deformity, especially any peculiarity that might 
be taken for the evil eye, or has made an enemy of a prominent 
member of the tribe, feels safe from accusation. The owner of fine 
beads and other adornments experiences much bitter with the sweet 
of possession because of the fear that some witch, prompted by 
jealousy, will strike him with disease. Moonlight is a great boon 
to those who must go about at night, for it enables them to identify 
suspicious objects. They say that witches love the night and lurk 
in shadows and darkness. Witches are believed to be able to assume 
the shape of beasts, and the domestic cat, on account of its stealthy 
habits and its ability to pass through small openings, is a favourite 
form. 

The philosophy of these people is such that though the witch may 
be regarded as all powerful, none but the poor and unfortunate are 
condemned. Few others are even brought to trial, for although it 
may be whispered about that certain ones are witches, their promi- 
nence prevents public accusation. Several years ago the droughts 
were very serious, and a retired sun-priest was suspected and im- 
peached, and his place was filled by another. The people whispered 
among themselves, " He is a sorcerer." This man was in fact far 
superior in intelligence to his successor, who miscalculated alto- 
gether the winter solstice in 1894, and consequently threw the win- 
ter ceremonies out of time, much to the disgust of the wiser heads 
in Zuni, who, in spite of the assumed infallibility of a sun-priest, 
felt sure that this one had made a mistake. The previous incum- 
bent, who had filled the office for many years, never miscalculated 
so far as the writer ever knew or heard. 

While there are always among these people certain despised crea- 
tures who are referred to as witches or wizards, it remains for some 
direct cause, such as the illness or death of some resident of the 
village, to bring the supposed witch to trial. The attendant theurgist 
or some member of the invalid's family makes search for the person 
who has caused the trouble, and alas for the poor creature who has 
offended the theurgist or who has an enemy in the house of the 
invalid, for he is sure to be pounced upon. In rare instances a 
member of the family of a deceased person takes the matter into 
his own hands. Such a case occurred some years ago, and was wit- 
nessed by Mr. D. D. Graham, at that time trader at Zuni. A man 
shot and killed a woman whom he accused of having bewitched 
his child and caused it to die. The man was not brought to trial, 
the court being satisfied with the declaration of the murderer that 
the woman was a witch. As witches are believed to be the direct 
cause of death, on conviction they suffer capital punishment. 



82 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

The usual procedure is for a member of the family to make known 
his suspicion to the attendant theurgist, or for the theurgist himself 
to decide upon the person to be accused. One is seldom brought 
to trial unless death has actually taken place or the patient is near 
death. The theurgist must account for his inability to cure the 
patient, and this he does by bringing to trial the supposed guilty 
person whose malevolence defies the powers of the theurgist. In 
ordinary cases of sickness patients are relieved by the theurgist, 
who pretends to extract foreign matter " shot " into the body, and 
the sorcerer or witch is thus left unmolested, with only whispers 
against him. 

Mrs. Stevenson then proceeds to give several stories 
of witches related by a prominent member of the Badger 
clan, as follows : 

I spent some days with the missionary's wife. She gave me a 
good bed to sleep in and blankets to keep me warm. She was very 
kind to me, and I was happy in her house, but after a time I grew 
very ill and had to return to my mother's home. A shaman was 
sent for and, through the power of the Beast Gods, he was enabled 
to discover the cause of my illness by placing pinches of sacred meal 
upon me, which opened to him the windows of my body. He dis- 
covered the disease and declared that I had been bewitched, and 
commanded the material which had been thrust into my body to 
come forth. He said he saw within me bits of the blankets I had 
slept between during my stay in the missionary's house, and bits of 
yarn and calico which the missionary's wife had given me. All this 
he commanded to come up through my mouth. The material ejected 
by me was so putrid that my mother and I could not distinguish the 
bits of blanket, yarn, and calico, but they were apparent to the all- 
powerful eye of the shaman. I do not know, but I think it was the 
old one-eyed woman who bewitched me. She was jealous of the 
good times I had at the mission. 

At one time I had a very bad throat, which was much swollen 
and very painful. The theurgist came and soon discovered the cause 
of my suffering. A witch had shot a stone into my throat. The 
theurgist had to repeat many prayers to the Blest Gods before power 
was given him to extract the stone. He had to place his hands upon 
my throat and call with great power, but, obedient to his command, 
the foreign matter finally appeared. It was, he averred, a large, 
ugly stone, and he immediately cast it into the fire, as unfit for my 
mother and me to see. 



Among the Witches 



A certain wizard painted his body red, and the scalp-knot was 
painted in white on his breasts and knees. He placed wreaths of 
yucca around his wrists and ankles, and then entered the whirlwind, 
which is the friend of witches, headforemost. He traveled to the 
great river of the west and returned to Zuni in one day. He went 
to the great river to steal the plume-offerings deposited by the rain- 
priests near Zuni and carried by the butterflies attached to the 
plume-sticks to the great river. (The spirit of the butterfly is sup- 
posed to carry the spirit of the plume offering.) 

The whirlwind, becoming weary, dropped the wizard a short dis-' 
tance from Zuni, and as he fell, a youth passing by exclaimed : 
"Aha, where have you been? Man, you are a sorcerer or you 
would not be traveling in the whirlwind." And the youth followed 
the wizard to the village and told his story, and it was discovered 
that the man was a wizard and had stolen the plume-offerings of 
the rain-priests. This wizard belonged to the Dogwood clan. He 
was tried by the Bow priesthood and was convicted and hung by the 
arms. No food was given him, and at the end of one night and a 
day he died. 

A wizard attached crow and owl plumes to his head that he might 
have the eyes of the crow to see quickly the approach of man and 
the eyes of the owl to travel by night. He flapped his arms and left 
Zuni after the people were asleep. He visited the Apaches and told 
them to come in four days and destroy the Zunis. At daylight a 
Zuni man was on his way to gather wood; hearing a cry like an 
owl, yet human, he looked about him and found a man whom he 
recognized as a Zuni. " Aha ! " said he ; " why have you those 
plumes upon your head? Aha, you are a sorcerer." "Do not be- 
tray me," said the sorcerer, " and I will give you many blankets 
and all my precious beads, and in four days, when the Apaches come, 
as I have told them to do, I will go out and have them kill me." 
" No," was the reply, " I do not wish your things ; but if you will 
allow the Apaches to take your life when they come, I will not tell." 
The man, thinking that perhaps the sorcerer had lied and that the 
Apaches were already on their way to Zuni, hastened to a place 
near by, gathered such wood as he could, and returned home. His 
wife chided him for the poor quality of the wood : " You always 
bring good wood and a large back load ; now you bring but little, 
and that very poor." But he did not betray the secret; and on the 
fourth morning he listened attentively, and when he heard the ax 
striking upon the rock, which was the signal given by the witch, he 
hurried from the village and found that the Apaches had indeed 
been met by this man and that they had killed him, not knowing 
him to be a sorcerer and their friend. The Apaches had gone, leav 



84 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

ing the body of the sorcerer lying upon crossed arrows. A Navaho, 
whom the Zuni met on the road, and who accompanied him to where 
'ihe body lay, exclaimed : " The Apaches have killed a friend." 
'How do you know?" inquired the Zuni. "Because," said the 
Navaho, " it is their custom and ours when we kill a friend through 
mistake to place the body upon crossed arrows that all may know 
that a friend and not an enemy has been killed." " But how is it 
the Apaches value this man, who is one of your people?" asked the 
Navaho ; and the Zuni replied, " He was a sorcerer." 

All the crops of the Zuni farming district of Pescado were de- 
stroyed one year by grasshoppers, which came so thick that they 
made the air black. It was discovered by a man digging in the field 
that this misfortune was brought upon them by a witch or wizard, 
who had mixed together some blue and red beans, a grasshopper, 
finely ground corn meal, some wheat, and other varieties of seeds. 
These he wrapped first in a piece of white cotton cloth, afterward in 
red calico and buckskin, and buried three feet in the ground. 

In her own experiences with the Zunis Mrs. Stevenson 
became fully aware of the Zuni habit of thought upon 
the subject. She relates the following: 

A young man came to the writer's camp one morning in a state of 
great excitement. He had a very sick wife and related that upon 
leaving his house on the previous night to attend a meeting of his 
fraternity he noticed a queer looking burro lurking before the house. 
Upon his return he was told by those who sat with his wife that a 
large cat had entered the house, and he knew at once that a witch or 
wizard had been there. He hastened from the house to discover a 
man wrapped in a blanket, but not in the Zuni fashion ; his head was 
sunk low in the blanket. Accosting this creature, whom he knew to 
be a wizard, he told him that if his wife died, he should inform 
Nai'uchi, the elder brother Bow priest, and have him hanged. For- 
tunately for the accused the wife soon recovered her health. 

A singular feature associated with witchcraft is that accused 
persons are permitted to be conspicuous in religious entertainments 
and sometimes to aid in religious festivals. A man belonging to 
the Hle'wekwe (Wood) fraternity or Sword swallowers, which 
is one of the most important in Zuni, was regarded by a ma- 
jority of the people as a wizard, yet he was not debarred from 
membership in his fraternity. During the last visit of the writer 
to Zuni this man entertained one of the Sha'lako (giant gods) 
at the annual ceremonial, at which six of these gods are per- 



Among the Witches 85 

sonated, though it is regarded as a high privilege to prepare one's 
house, which must be thoroughly renovated for the reception of the 
^ha'lako. This poor fellow, who was poor also in worldly goods, 
after having the honour accorded to him, made every effort at his 
meager command to have his house suitable for the reception of the 
god he was to entertain. He laboured hard and long each day, for 
he was so much despised for his poverty that few would aid him. 
During his labours upon the improvement of his house, a favourite 
patient of Nai'uchi's died ; but he was not allowed to die in peace. 
He was interrogated regarding the cause of his trouble and impli- 
cated the member of the Sword swallowers above referred to, and 
while the invalid lay dying, the accused man was summoned and 
tried by the Bow priesthood in his presence. The accused declared 
he knew nothing of witchcraft, but his judges pressed him to tell 
what he had done to the sufferer. Finally, realizing that pleading 
innocence would be of no avail, he declared that he injured the man 
by touching his throat with the tips of his fingers, hoping by this 
statement to inspire the jurors with his supernatural power and 
thus save himself from torture; but he was condemned, and re- 
turned to his home to await the hour of execution. 

Near midnight the writer was notified that this man was to be put 
to death. It seemed too terrible to believe, and hastening from her 
camp to the village she met Nai'uchi as he was returning from the 
deathbed of his patient. The great theurgist and elder brother Bow 
priest was urged to withdraw his verdict on the ground that he 
might be mistaken. Since he was obdurate, he was told that the 
United States Government would certainly punish him. He re- 
torted : " I am your friend. Friends do not betray one another. 
Would you betray me to the soldiers ? " "I have not said I would 
inform upon you," was the reply ; " I am too much your friend to 
see you suffer." " I shall hang this wizard, even though I displease 
you," he declared. " I shall hang him though the United States 
Government put me in prison for one month, six months, a year, 
or forever. He has killed my child, and he must die." The writer 
and the theurgist soon reached the house of the latter and stood by 
a lamp attached to the wall of the large living room. The light fell 
upon Nai'uchi's face and the expression, usually so kind, was now 
set and stern. There was nothing of rage expressed, only the firm 
determination of a man bent upon doing his duty though he lost his 
life by the act. 

" Do you care for me at all ? " asked the writer. 

" I have told you I am your friend." 

"Will you do one thing for me?" 

" Anything but what you have just asked." 



86 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

" I wish that you would delay hanging the man until to-morrow 
night." 

" So that you can send to Fort Wingate and have the soldiers 
come for me? " 

" No, I will not send for the soldiers, nor will I inform any one 
upon you." 

" Then, I will wait until to-morrow night, but the wizard shall 
then be hanged." The position of the writer was a delicate one. 
The man must be saved, but she must not make an enemy of a tried 
friend and one of the men most important to her in her studies. 
All work was suspended on the improvement of the house of the 
accused. On entering a miserable apartment on an upper floor of 
his house early on the morning following the writer's conversation 
with Nai'uchi, a sad scene was presented. The accused sat upon 
the floor, leaning against the wall, a picture of abject despair, 
though perfectly calm. His wife, who was ill, sat on one side, and 
his young daughter, ready to become a mother, on the other. The 
eyes of both women were swollen and inflamed from weeping, and 
they continued to weep as they clung to the man they loved. It 
would not do for the writer's presence in this house to become 
known. Taking the man's hand she said : " Have faith in me ; I 
will save you." His face became radiant for a moment; then the 
stoical sadness returned, and, smiling faintly as he thanked her, he 
said: " No, mother; you wish to save me, but you cannot. Nai'uchi 
has spoken." Adding another word of assurance the writer hur- 
riedly left the house without being discovered. Before night came 
she held a court of her own, Nai'uchi, the younger brother Bow 
priest, and the accused being present, and the result was that the 
unfortunate was released. This was brought about by a declaration 
on the part of the writer that she had deprived the man of his 
power of sorcery; and he was soon at work upon his house, fitting 
it for the reception of a Sha'lako god. 

My host, Tsnahey, was once intimately associated with 
a witchcraft case, the story of which cannot fail to be 
interesting. To the whites Tsnahey is known as Dick 
— Ziini Dick. Brought up in the family of the former 
Indian trader who lived at Zuni for over thirty years was 
Zuni Nick. Nick and Dick when I knew them did not 
speak as they passed by. All my efforts to bring them 
together failed, and from what each of them told me at 
different times I have pieced together the following. 




Photograph by George Mliartou James. 

ZUNI NICK, SOON AFTER HE WAS TRIED AS A WIZARD. 



Among the Witches 87 

Nick's bringing-up naturally led him to ignore and de- 
spise the superstitions of his people — he simply absorbed 
the ideas daily talked in his presence by white people 
when the ceremonials and dances were being performed. 
He was evidently somewhat of a freethinker and also an 
outspoken lad, and after he had been to the white man's 
school and returned to Zuni he did not hesitate openly 
to criticise the " ways of the old " as followed by the 
Zunis. 

In course of time Nick fell in love with a Zuni girl and 
she reciprocated his affections. Although there was con- 
siderable opposition to their marriage, the young people 
finally had their way. Unfortunately the marriage was 
not a happy one. Nick's wife was the daughter of a 
true believer and she was as firm and faithful in her 
acceptation of the teachings of " The Old " as her parents. 
This in itself was enough to cause dissension between 
herself and her husband and as there were several other 
things that Nick constantly did which were very objec- 
tionable to his wife, it was not long before they quarreled 
and Nick sent her home in disgrace. This was equivalent 
to a divorce. Naturally this proceeding very much of- 
fended the parents and friends of Nick's wife, and there 
is little doubt but that this event was made the occasion 
for much that followed. Nai'uchi, one of the chief 
priests, had long looked with disfavour on Nick and his 
disrespectful attitude. Ke and his brother medicine men 
doubtless got together and hatched up the following 
scheme. Nick was to be accused of being a witch and 
if this could be shown, it would subject him to the severest 
punishments of the tribe. That year everything seemed 
to favour the plot. Crops had been bad for some time; 
several severe storms came and washed out their corn 
fields and gardens. A fierce wind blew off all the growing 



88 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

peaches from the trees. A disease carried off a number 
of their sheep and goats, and to crown all, an epidemic 
of small-pox struck the village and carried off not only a 
number of children but several of the adults. 

It was soon whispered about that Nick was responsible 
for all these evil happenings. Nick was a witch. He 
was shunned on every hand and although he knew that 
something serious was in the minds of the natives, it 
never occurred to him that he was being charged with 
sorcery. 

But he was soon to have a rude awakening. One night 
he was awakened out of a sound sleep to find himself 
bound hand and foot and just about to have a gag placed 
in his mouth. He was conveyed to one of the under- 
ground kivas where, in solemn and silent conclave, the 
court that was to judge him was assembled. The head 
priest sprinkled a line of sacred meal before him, about 
three feet in length, at the east end of which he placed 
his Me-le, — the insignia of the order of " Life Givers." 
A crystal about two inches high was put about midway 
down the line. He had a medicine bowl and basket of 
sacred meal by his side. A woman of his household then 
brought a vase of water and a gourd dipper which she 
placed by his right side. Dipping up a gourd full of 
water, he began to pray in very gentle tones and then 
emptied the water into the medicine bowl. Six gourdfuls 
were thus emptied, each accompanied by prayers to the 
gods of the six regions where dwell the beast gods. 
Medicine was afterwards sprinkled into the water and 
six fetiches dropped in, one for each of the six regions, 
then a cross surrounded by a circle was formed on the 
surface of the water with sacred meal. 

Quite a number of other ceremonies were gone through 
and then the accusers of Nick were called upon by Nai- 



Among the Witches 89 

uchi to tell what they knew of his evil doings. During 
the whole of this time, Nick remained bound and gagged 
so that he could make no reply to the many accusations 
that were hurled against him. When all his accusers 
were done, Nai'uchi asked for his reply. As a rule at 
such trials, the accused make the most laborious efforts 
to free themselves from the charges, but Nick's training 
was such that he refused to enter into any defense and 
at the same time, defied the priest. This he did, as he 
afterwards told me, trusting that Mr. Graham would 
learn of his predicament and in some way extricate him. 

He defied the court and used very strong language in 
denouncing their high-handed procedure. If he were 
injured in the slightest, he would have word sent to the 
soldiers at Fort Wingate who would certainly avenge 
any injustice. All this seemed to have no effect upon the 
court, and it was finally decided that he should be hanged. 
This hanging is not done as we do it, by placing a rope 
around the neck and strangling the victim. Instead, the 
elbows are brought together as far back as possible and 
tied together with a rawhide riata. One end of this is 
then thrown over a beam placed high up on one of the 
walls for this purpose. This beam, by the way, is a spe- 
cially consecrated beam, taken from the old church built 
by the Franciscans. In very desperate cases the swing- 
ing up is done from the thumbs and wrists instead of 
from the elbows. 

At the appointed time Nick was conducted to the large 
plaza where all the native priests and warriors assembled 
with Nai'uchi. Gathered around them was every youth, 
woman and child in the pueblo. At a given signal a half 
dozen willing pairs of hands pulled on the rope and Nick 
was hoisted into the air. Unfortunately for the priests 
they had forgotten to replace the gag in Nick's mouth. 



90 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

When the first twinges of pain caught him, he shrieked 
aloud and reahzing that things were now becoming des- 
perate, he shrieked and yelled with such vigour that for- 
tunately for him, his cries were heard by Mr. Graham 
who, having had occasion to call him a short time before, 
and receiving no answer, had somehow become suspicious 
that all was not well. Hurrying across the stream to 
the plaza with a loaded revolver in each hand, Mr. Gra- 
ham was in time to prevent further injury to Nick. He 
commanded the warriors to lower the unfortunate man, 
and then without any argument, cut him loose and took 
him back home, threatening dire vengeance on the priest 
and all the others if they dared again to interfere with 
his favourite who had now become his regular assistant 
in his store. 

Undoubtedly had not Mr, Graham appeared in time, 
Nick would have been suspended until death occurred. 
When death is delayed beyond what the priests consider 
a reasonable time, one of them takes a club and by vigor- 
ous blows on the head of the victim puts an end to his 
life. 

At the time this occurred Dick was the governor of the 
pueblo, and while he had nothing to do with the religious 
ceremonies or the organization that had arrested and 
tried Nick, the latter felt that he ought to have exercised 
his power as governor to put a stop to the proceedings. 
Accordingly he went down to Fort Wingate and instead 
of laying a complaint against Nai'uchi and those who 
had actually punished him, he asked that Dick be pun- 
ished for his failure to protect him. The officers at Win- 
gate took his view of the question and sent up for Dick, 
and then, without a trial, or any explanation, kept the lat- 
ter in captivity for several months. The result is that 
Dick and Nick do not speak as they pass by. Each feels 



Among the Witches 91 

that he was cruelly wronged by the other and though, for 
years, I have tried to heal the breach and bring them to- 
gether, as yet I have not succeeded. 

The Zunis still believe in witchcraft, and there is to 
be found in the National Museum at Washington, a com- 
plete set of prayer plumes and other medicines used for 
the detection of witches. They were given by Nai'uchi to 
Mrs. Stevenson. 

On one of my visits I entered Zuni just at the critical 
time in a " witch's " hanging. The poor old wretch, 
friendless and forlorn, had been accused of causing the 
death of We-wha, one of the most noted women of the 
tribe. Refusing to confess she was strung up by the 
thumbs, her hands tied behind her. 

Before my horses were out of the wagon I was in- 
formed of what was transpiring. But I was watched, 
and as I hastened to the scene, the poor old witch, Melita, 
was hurried to what was supposed to be a place of secrecy. 
Going to Nai'uchi, the Chief Priest of the Sacred Bow, 
I sought to find what had become of her. He refused 
to let me know, but I was later assured that she was 
somewhere in the great community house. Again ask- 
ing to be led to her I was again refused most posi- 
tively. 

Then I began the search and after several hours found 
her, sick almost to death as the result of the cruel treat- 
ment she had received. Her wrists were cut through 
to the bone, her back all lacerated with the beatings 
she had received, and her cheeks even were broken where 
the blood had burst through the veins. When I asked her 
who had beaten her so cruelly, she cried out " Hay-tot-si, 
Haytotsi," who was one of Nai'uchi's assistants, the 
other being Ne-mo-si. 

After caring for her wounds, white friends were noti- 



92 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

fied, who brought her food. To prevent further molesta- 
tion the officers were sent for, and this time, no tender 
sentiment was allowed to stand in the way of the actual 
culprits being arrested. They were taken to jail, kept 
there without trial, and then, many months later, were 
released, to return to Zuni and discuss the wisdom and 
justice of the white man, who so prides himself on his 
fairness and honour, and yet could keep prisoners in jail, 
contrary to law, and finally release them contrary to 
law. 

Of Nai'uchi's sincere belief in witchcraft Mrs. Steven- 
son writes: 

Nai'uchi presented the complete set of prayer plumes and medi- 
cines to the writer, requesting her to show them to the President as 
proof that witches do exist in Zuni ; for these people had had threats 
from the United States Government regarding their practice of 
hanging persons accused of witchcraft. These threats, however, 
were never carried into execution until after the writer had left 
Zuni in 1896, when Nai'uchi and several others were arrested for 
hanging a woman they had accused of witchcraft. Help came in 
time to save the woman and troops were stationed in Zuni to protect 
the Government teachers while Nai'uchi and others were in prison 
in Albuquerque, awaiting their trial. During this period the words 
of the writer's poor, misguided, but dear and tried, friend, Nai'uchi, 
came often to her : " They may imprison me for one month, six 
months, a year, or forever, but I shall hang the witch who destroys 
the life of my child.'' 

The case referred to by Mrs. Stevenson is the one I 
have already related, in which Melita was rescued from 
Nai'uchi. 

Gushing gives a most graphic account of a witchcraft 
trial he attended, and of the way he saved the victim's 
life. 

It was well that we returned ! The wind-storms were growing 
worse : day after day they had drifted the scorching sand over the 
valley, until the springs were choked up and the river was so dry 
that a stranger could not have distinguished it from a streamless 




Photograph by George U'Jiarton James. 

MELITA, THE DAY AFTER SHE WAS RESCUED FROM HANGING AS 

A WITCH. 



Among the Witches 93 

arroyo. The nation was threatened with famine. Many were the 
grave speculations and councils relative to the " meaning of the gods 
in thus punishing their children." 

Strange to say, I was given a prominent place in these, and was 
often appealed to, on account of my reputed " knowledge of the 
world." More and more frequent and desperate grew these gather- 
ings, until at last a poor fellow named " Big Belly " was seized 
and brought up before them, accused of " heresy." The trial — in 
which I had taken no part — lasted a whole day and part of a night, 
when to my surprise a body of elders summoned me, and placed me 
at the head of their council. They addressed and treated me as 
chief counselor of their nation, which office I held thenceforward 
for nearly two years. Among other things, they asked what should 
be done. I inquired minutely into the case, and learned that the cul- 
prit had opened one of the sand-choked springs, which proved to be 
sacred. The gods were supposed to be angry with the nation on 
account of his transgression — demanding the sacrifice of his life. 
As impassionately as possible, I pleaded that the wind-storms had 
set in long before he opened the spring, and suggested that he be 
made to fill it up again and to sacrifice bits of shells and turquoise 
to it. The suggestion was adopted ! The additional penalty of 
ostracism, however, was laid upon him, and to this day he lives in 
the farming pueblo of Ki-ap-kwai-na-kwin, or Ojo Caliente. 

One evil followed another. Many deaths occurred, among them, 
that of a beautiful girl, who had been universally liked. Nor did 
the wind-storms abate. As a consequence, I heard one night a 
peculiar, long war-cry. It was joined by another and another, until 
the sound grew strangely weird and ominous. Then three or four 
men rushed past my door yelling : " A wizard ! a wizard ! " The 
tribe was soon in an uproar. The priests of the Bow had seized an 
old man named the " Bat," and in one of their secret chambers were 
trying him for sorcery. I was not present, of course, at the trial ; 
but at three o'clock in the morning they dragged him forth to the 
hill on the north side of the pueblo. There they tied his hands 
behind him with a rawhide rope ; and passing the end of the latter 
over a pole, supported by high crotched posts, they drew him up 
until his toes barely touched the ground and he was bent almost 
double. 

Then the four chief-priests of the Bow approached and harangued 
him one by one, but provoked no reply save the most piteous moans. 
Day dawned; yet still he hung there. The speeches grew louder 
and more furious, until, fearing violence, I ran home, buckled on 
my pistol and returned. I went straight to the old man's side. 

" Go back," said the accusers. 



94 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

" I will not go back ; for I come with words." 

" Speak then," said they. 

" These," said I. " You may try the old man, but you must not 
kill him. The Americans will see you, or find it out, and tell their 
people, who will say: 'The Zunis murdered one of their own 
grandfathers.' That will bring trouble on you all." 

" What ! murder a wizard ? " they exclaimed. " Ho ! " and for 
a few moments I grew hopeless ; for the chief-priests turned to the 
old man, and asked, with mock tenderness : 

"Father, does it hurt?" 

" Ai-o," moaned the old man, in a weak voice, " I die, I am dying." 

" That's right," retorted the priest. " Pull him up a little higher, 
my son," said he, addressing an assistant. " He says it hurts, and I 
have hopes he will speak." Then he turned to me again. 

" This is our way, my son, of bringing bad men to wisdom. I 
have worn my throat out urging him to speak ; he shall be let to 
go." 

"What shall I say?" piteously moaned the suffering man. 

" Say yes or no! dotard," howled the priest. 

" Speak, grandfather, speak ! " said I, as reassuringly as I could, 
at the same time laying my hand on his withered arm. 

" Tell them to let me down, then," he pleaded, " for I can speak 
not long as I am ; I shall die. Oh ! I shall die." 

" Thanks ! father, thanks ! " said the priest, briskly. " Let him 
down ; he is coming to his senses, I see." 

They let the sufferer down for a moment ; and gazing on the 
ground, he began : 

" True ! I have been bad. My father taught me fifty years ago, 
in the mountains of the summer snows. It was medicine that I used. 
You will find a bundle of it over the rafters, in my highest room." 

One of the attendants was immediately despatched, and soon re- 
turned with a little bunch of twigs. 

" Aye ! that it is, I used that. It has covered me with shame ; but 
I will be better. I will rejoin my ti-kia (sacred order). It will 
surely rain within four days, for if you but Jet me go, I shall join 
my ti-kia again." 

" Will you be wise? " 

" Yes ! believe me." 

"Will you stay in Zuni?" 

" Yes ! believe me." 

"Will you never more cause tears?" 

" No ! It were a shame." 

"Will you never teach to others your magic?" 

" No ! believe me — " 



Among the Witches 95 

" Thanks ! You have spoken. Let him go ! " said the priest, as he 
walked hastily through the crowd toward his home. 

Four days passed, and no rain came; nor did the " Bat" do as he 
had promised, for he returned home only to threaten revenge on the 
priesthood, and since the fifth day no one outside of that priesthood 
has ever seen a trace of the " Bat." 

In Zuni law-custom there are but two crimes punishable by death 
— sorcery and cowardice in battle. If, however, a man attempt the 
life of another, or even threaten it, he is regarded as a wizard ; but 
no immediate measures are taken for his correction. Should crops 
fail, wind-storms prevail, or should the threatened man die, even 
from natural causes, the reputed wizard is, when he least expects it, 
dragged from his bed at night by the secret council of the A-pi- 
thlan-shi-wa-ni, taken to their chamber and tried long and fairly. 
Should the culprit persist in silence, he is taken forth and tortured 
by the simple yet excruciatingly painful method I have described, 
throughout a "single course of the sun;" and if still silent, again 
taken to the chamber of the priesthood, whence he never comes forth 
alive; nor do others than members of the dread organization ever 
know what becomes of him. Rare indeed is the execution for which 
no other than superstitious reasons be adduced. Even in case of 
the " Bat," I learned that he had attempted to poison his own niece, 
the girl heretofore mentioned, the death of whom, a few weeks after- 
ward, rendered him a criminal and liable to condemnation, not only 
as such but as a sorcerer. Thus, like a vigilance committee, the 
priesthood of the Bow secretly tries all cases of capital crime under 
the name of sorcery or witchcraft, — the war-chief of the nation, 
himself necessarily a prominent priest of the Bow, acting as exe- 
cutioner, and, with the aid of his sub-chiefs, as secretly disposing 
of the body. On account of this mysterious method of justice crime 
is rare in Zuni. 

Lummis, in his association both with Mexicans and 
Indians, constantly came in contact with witchcraft, and 
he relates some amusing incidents in connection there- 
with. He says : 

Of later years the intelligence of the educated Mexicans has ren- 
dered such trials no longer possible, and no Mexican would think 
now of bringing a witch into court; but proceedings outside the law 
are not entirely done with. In the year 1887, to my knowledge, a 
poor old Mexican woman was beaten to death in a remote town by 
two men who believed they had been bewitched by her ; and no at- 
tempt was ever made to punish her slayers ! A few months later I 



96 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

had the remarkable privilege of photographing three " witches " and 
some of the people they had "bewitched." One Mexican, of whom 
I have also a picture, claims that he was permanently crippled by 
these poor women, and his right leg is sadly twisted — though most 
of us would see in it more of rheumatism than of witchcraft. But 
you never could make Patapalo believe that. He had offended the 
women, and afterward thoughtlessly drank some coffee they prof- 
fered ; and his leg at once grew crooked — what could be plainer 
than that they had bewitched him? 

A much more intelligent man than the poor town-butcher, Pata- 
palo, tells — and believes — a much more astounding story. He in- 
curred the displeasure of a witch in San Mateo, and is ready to make 
oath that she turned him into a woman ! He had to pay another 
witch in the distant canyon Juan de San Tafoya to turn him back 
to a man again ! He is a person of whose sincere belief in this 
ridiculous statement there can be no doubt, and his intelligence in 
other matters emphasizes the depth of his superstitious ignorance in 
this. I know several other Mexicans who claim to have been be- 
witched in the same way ; and the stories of minor misfortunes at 
the hands of the witches are innumerable. They can be heard in 
any New Mexican hamlet. 

There are many very curious details in the Mexican witch-faith. 
No witch, for instance, can pass a sign of the cross ; and a couple of 
pins or sticks placed in that shape effectually bars witches from en- 
tering the room or from emerging if the holy emblem is between 
them and the door. The spoken name of God or the Virgin Mary 
breaks a witch's spell at once. It is soberly related by many people 
of my acquaintance that they employed witches to bear them pick-a- 
back to great distances ; but becoming alarmed at the enormous 
height to which the witches flew with them, they cried, " God save 
me!" or something of the sort, and instantly fell thousands of feet 
to the ground, but were not badly hurt! 

Mexican witches do not fly about on broomsticks, like those in 
whom our forefathers believed, but in an even more remarkable 
fashion. By day they are plain, commonplace people, but at night 
they take the shapes of dogs, cats, rats, or other animals, and sally 
forth to witch-meetings in the mountains, or to prowl about the 
houses of those they dislike. So when the average Mexican sees a 
strange cat or dog about his home at night he feels a horror which 
seems out of place in a man who has proved his courage in bloody 
Indian wars and all the perils of the frontier. 

When witches wish to fly, they generally retain their human form, 
but assume the legs and eyes of a coyote or other animal, leaving 



Among the Witches 97 

their own at home. Then saying (in Spanish, of course) , " Without 
God and without the Virgin Mary," they rise into the air and sail 
away. A sad accident once befell a male witch named Juan Perea, 
whom I knew in San Mateo, but who died a couple of years ago. It 
was asserted that one night he went flying off with the eyes and 
legs of a cat, leaving his own on the kitchen table. His poor starved 
shepherd-dog overturned the table and ate the eyes, and Juan had 
to go through the rest of his life wearing the green eyes of a cat ! 

In condemning these primitive peoples for their tena- 
cious adherence to this superstition let us not forget that 
it is but little over two hundred years ago that the most 
cultured, refined, educated and pious of the people of 
New England were guilty of the most hideous and mon- 
strous cruelties to poor and helpless people, generally old 
women, who had been accused of being witches. When 
we rise in our superiority to condemn the Indian and 
Mexican it might be well to picture before our mind's 
eyes the dignified and holy Cotton Mather expounding 
the biblical text with all sincerity, " Thou shalt not suffer 
a witch to live." 

When we exclaim at the horror of the treatment of 
Nick and Melita let us recall the stocks, the whippings 
at the cart's tail, the ear- and nose-slitting and then the 
hanging and burning of the helpless accused of New Eng- 
land. 

Our own savageness is too recent to justify our too 
severe condemnation of those who, at the present time, 
are still groping in the darkness from which we have 
but just emerged. 



CHAPTER VIII 

HUNTING WITH INDIANS IN NEW MEXICO * 

White people have gained a slight insight into the 
wonderful hunting lore of the Pueblo and other Indians 
of New Mexico, but few have more than the faintest ink- 
ling of the fascinating field it covers. 

On my first visit to Zuni, I purchased from a youth, — 
who had been to the Indian School at Carlisle, and, there- 
fore, had become skeptical and " superior to the religious 
ideas of his people," — a small but beautifully carved 
stone figure of a mountain lion which he said was used 
in hunting. This was all he would tell me, so, when I 
met others of the tribe I showed it and asked them about 
it. No sooner did they see it than, almost breathless 
with awe, in whispers they exclaimed : " We-ma-he," 
clearly showing that they were astounded at my posses- 
sion of the creature, and surprised that no harm had 
come to me. Possibly I never might have learned the 
significance of the we-ma-he had I not later read Lieut. 

1 This chapter is far too profound a discussion and presentation of 
this subject to have been written by this, or any other, author, who 
had not actually lived with the Zunis for many years and become 
intimately acquainted with their inmost life. There are but two 
men who could have written it. One was Lieut. Frank Hamilton 
Gushing, the other his worthy successor in this field, Dr. Jesse Wal- 
ter Fewkes. It was written (and buried to all but scientists in the 
Government publications) by Lieut. Gushing, and in accordance with 
a pledge made to him some short time before he died I am now pre- 
senting it in this book designed for popular reading, that a far wider 
circle may become familiar with his wonderfully illuminative work 
among these interesting aboriginal people. 

98 




PUEBLO INDIAN, WITH THROWING STICK, READY FOR A 
RABBIT HUNT. 



Hunting with Indians in New Mexico 99 

Cushing's lucid monograph on the subject, published in 
the Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 
In this he explains the religion or philosophy of the Zuni 
and how his mind works in regard to the objects of Na- 
ture. As I have endeavoured to show, in the chapter 
on the Religion of the Indians, he looks up to, worships, 
Nature and all animals, birds, fishes, reptiles. Naturally 
the white man asks why? He cannot see any reason 
for this. 

All this is fully explained in the myths of the Zuni — 
called by Gushing the Zuni " Iliad." Here is the story 
as translated by him : 

In the days when all was new, men lived in the four caverns of the 
lower regions. In the lower-most one of these men first came to 
know of their existence. It was dark, and as men increased they 
began to crowd one another and were very unhappy. Wise men 
came into existence among them, whose children supplicated them 
that they should obtain deliverance from such a condition of life. 

It was then that the " Holder of the Paths of Life," the Sun- 
father, created from his own being two children, who fell to earth 
for the good of all beings. The Sun-father endowed these children 
with immortal youth, with power even as his own power, and cre- 
ated for them a bow — the Rain-bow — and arrow — the Lightning. 
For them he also made a shield like unto his own, of magic power, 
and a knife of flint, the great magic war knife. The shield was a 
mere network of sacred cords, of cotton on a hoop of wood, and to 
the center of this net-shield was attached the magic knife. 

These children cut the face of the world with their magic knife, 
and were borne down upon their shield into the caverns in which 
all men dwelt. There as the leaders of men, they lived with their 
children, mankind. 

They listened to the supplication of the priests — the wise men. 
They built a ladder to the roof of the first cave and widened with 
their flint knife and shield the aperture through which they had 
entered. Then they led men forth into the second cavern, which was 
larger and not quite so dark. 

Ere long men multiplied and bemoaned their condition as before. 
Again they besought their priests, whose supplications were once 
more listened to by the divine children. As before, they led all 
mankind into the third world. Here it was still larger and like 



100 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

twilight, for the light of the Sun himself sifted down through the 
opening. To these poor children of the dark the opening itself 
seemed a blazing sun. 

But as time went on men multiplied even as they had before, and 
at last, as at first, bemoaned their condition. Again the two children 
listened to their supplications, and it was then that the children of 
men first saw the light of their father, the Sun. 

The world had been covered with water. It was damp and un- 
stable. Earthquakes disturbed its surface. Strange beings rose up 
through it, monsters and animals of prey. As upon an island in the 
middle of a great water, the children of men were led forth into 
the light of their father, the Sun. It blinded and heated them so 
that they cried to one another in anguish, and fell down, and cov- 
ered their eyes with their bare hands and arms, for men were black 
then, like the caves they came from, and naked, save for a covering 
at the loins of rush, like yucca fiber, and sandals of the same, and 
their eyes, like the owl's, were unused to the daylight. 

Eastward the two children began to lead them, toward the home 
of the Sun-father. 

Now, it happened that the two children saw that the earth must be 
dried and hardened, for whenever the foot touched the soil, water 
gathered — as may be seen even in the rocks to-day — and the mon- 
sters which rose from the deep devoured the children of men. 
Therefore they consulted together and sought the advice of their 
creator, the Sun-father. By his directions, they placed their magic 
shield upon the soft sands. They drew four lines a step apart upon 
the wet earth. Then the older brother said to the younger, Wilt 
thou, or shall I, take the lead? 

" I will take the lead," said the younger. 

" Stand thou upon the last line," said the older. 

And when they had laid upon the magic shield the rainbow, and 
across it the arrows of lightning, towards all the quarters of the 
world, the younger brother took his station facing toward the right. 
The older brother took his station facing toward the left. When all 
was ready, both braced themselves to run. The older brother drew 
his arrow to the head, let fly, and struck the rainbow and the light- 
ning arrow midway where they crossed. Instantly, thlu-tchu! shot 
the arrows of lightning in every direction, and fire rolled over the 
face of the earth, and the two gods followed the courses of their 
arrows of lightning. 

Now that the surface of the earth was hardened (by the heat of 
the lightning), even the animals of prey, powerful and like the 
fathers (gods) themselves, would have devoured the children of 
men; and the Two thought it was not well that they should all be 



Hunting with Indians in New Mexico 101 

permitted to live, " for," said they, " alike will the children of men 
and the children of the animals of prey multiply themselves. The 
animals of prey are provided with talons and teeth ; men are but 
poor, the finished beings of earth, therefore the weaker." 

Whenever they came across the pathway of one of these animals, 
were he great mountain lion or but a mere mole, they struck him 
with the fire of lightning which they carried in their magic shield. 
Thlu! and instantly he was shriveled and burnt into stone. 

Then said they to the animals that they had thus changed to stone, 
"That ye may not be evil unto men, but that ye may be a great 
good unto them, have we changed you into rock everlasting. By 
the magic breath of prey, by the heart that shall endure forever 
within you, shall ye be made to serve instead of to devour man- 
kind." 

Thus was the surface of the earth hardened and scorched and 
many of all kinds of beings changed into stone. Thus, too, it hap- 
pens that we find, here and there throughout the world, their forms, 
sometimes large and like the beings themselves, sometimes shriveled 
and distorted. And we often see among the rocks the forms of many 
beings that live no longer, which shows us that all was different in 
the " days of the new." 

The Zunis regard any one who finds these concretions 
as blessed with great good fortune and they call upon 
him (or her) to care for them for the sake of the magic 
power that was given to them by the Two in the " days 
of the new." " For," say they, " the spirits of the we- 
mahe still live, and are pleased to receive from us the 
offerings of the heart and the sacred necklace of treasure, 
hence they turn their ears and the ears of their brothers 
in our direction that they may hearken unto our prayers 
and know our wants." 

The Zuni also believes that the hearts of the great 
animals of prey are infused with a spirit of magic in- 
fluence over the hearts of the animals they prey upon — 
the game animals; that their breaths derived from their 
hearts, and breathed upon their prey, whether near or far, 
never fail to overcome them, piercing their hearts and 
causing their limbs to stiffen, and the animals themselves 



102 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

to lose their strength. Moreover, the roar or cry of 
a beast of prey is accounted its magic medicine of de- 
struction, which, heard by the game animals, is fatal to 
them, because it charms their senses, as does the breath 
their hearts. Since the mountain lion, for instance, lives 
by the blood and flesh of the game animals, and by these 
alone, he is endowed not only with the above powers, but 
with peculiar powers that they possess in the senses of 
sight and smell. Moreover, these powers, as derived 
from his heart, are preserved in his fetich, since his heart 
still lives, even though his person be changed to stone. 

But the Zuni believes, also, that a special fetich be- 
longs to a special world region, six of which he recog- 
nizes, naming each with his poetic conceptions of its dis- 
tinguishing characteristic : the North with its auroral 
hues, the Direction of the Swept or Barren Place; the 
West, with its blue Pacific, the Direction of the Home 
of the Waters (for the Zunis regard the Pacific as the 
original home of all waters) ; the South, with its rosy 
hues, the Direction of the Place of the Beautiful Red; the 
East, with its white dawn, the Direction of the Home of 
Day; the upper Region or Above, with the many hues of 
the clouded sky, the Direction of the Home of the High; 
and the Lower Regions, or Below, the Direction of the 
Home of the Low. 

How the fetiches came to be allotted to the guardian- 
ship of these respective world sections and at the same 
time have authority committed to them to control the 
" medicine powers," etc., which are supposed to inhere 
to these sections and be drawn from them for man's bene- 
fit is told in the following legend of Po-shai-an-k'ia. 
This personage is said to have appeared in human form, 
poorly clad, and therefore reviled by men. He taught 
the ancestors of the Zuni, Taos, Oraibi (Hopi) and 



Hunting with Indians in New Mexico 103 

Coconino (Havasupai) Indians their agricultural and 
other arts, their systems of worship by means of plumed 
and painted prayer-sticks; organized their medicine so- 
cieties; and then disappeared by way of an opening to 
the underworld known as Shi-pa-pu-li-ma, whence he de- 
parted for the Home of the Sun. He is still the conscious 
auditor of the prayers of his children, the invisible ruler 
of the spiritual Shi-pa-pu-li-ma, and of the lesser gods 
of the medicine orders, the principal " Finisher of the 
Paths of our Lives." The legend is as follows : 

In ancient times, while yet all beings belonged to one family, Po- 
shai-an-k*ia, the father of our sacred bands, lived with his children 
in the City of the Mists — the center of the Medicine Societies of 
the world. There he was guarded by his six warriors, toward the 
north by the Mountain Lion (Long Tail) ; toward the west by the 
Bear (Clumsy Foot) ; toward the south by the Badger (Black Mark 
Face) ; toward the east by the Wolf (Hairy Tail) ; above by the 
Eagle (White Cap) ; and below by the Mole. He then divided the 
universe into the six regions named above. In the center of the 
Great Sea of each of these regions stood a very ancient Sacred 
Place, — a great mountain peak. In the north was the mountain 
Yellow, in the west the mountain Blue, in the south the mountain 
Red, in the east the mountain White, above the mountain All-colour, 
and below the mountain Black. 

Po-shai-an-k'ia then said to the mountain lion : Long Tail, thou 
art stout of heart and strong of will. Therefore give I unto thee 
and unto thy children forever the mastership of the gods of prey, 
and the guardianship of the Great Northern world (for thy coat is 
of yellow), that thou guard from that quarter the coming of evil 
upon my children of men, that thou receive in that quarter their 
messages to me, that thou become the father in the North of the 
Sacred Medicine orders all, that thou become a Maker of the Paths 
(of men's lives). 

Thither went the mountain lion. 

Then in turn the Bear was sent to the west, for his coat was ruddy 
and marked with black and white equally, the colours of the land of 
summer, which is red and stands between the day and the night ; 
the white wolf to the east, for his coat was white and gray, the 
colour of the day and dawn ; the eagle to the upper regions, for 
he flies through the skies without tiring and his coat was speckled 
like the clouds ; the prey mole to the Lower regions, for he burrows 



104 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

through the earth without tiring, and his coat was black, the colour 
of the holes and caves of the earth. 

Thus these animals possess (to the Zuni mind) not 
only the guardianship of the six regions, but also the 
mastership, not merely in a geographic sense, but in the 
more mysterious " medicine " sense of the powers which 
are supposed to emanate from these regions. They also 
act as mediators between men and Po-shai-an-k'ia and 
conversely, between the latter and men. By means of 
the prayer-plumes they convey messages from him and 
his associated gods to men. It is important that these two 
phases of the power and mission of the prey animals be 
understood and kept mentally separate, for they explain 
clearly (when so recalled) much of what otherwise would 
be incomprehensible in the hunting and other ceremonials 
of the Zuni. 

If a member of any of the Zuni religious orders is 
neglectful of his religious duties he is liable at any time 
to be punished by Po-shai-an-k'ia through some one of 
his animal warriors and defenders. Illustrative of this, 
the following story is often told by the priests with great 
emphasis to any neglectful member. 

Mi-tsi was long a faithful member of the Little Fire order, but 
he grew careless, neglected his sacrifices, and resigned his rank as 
" Keeper of the Medicines," from sheer laziness. In vain the " fa- 
thers " (chief priests) warned him. He only grew hot with anger. 
One day Mi-tsi went up on the mesas to cut corral poles. He sat 
down to eat his dinner. A great black bear walked out of the 
thicket near at hand and leisurely approached him. Mi-tsi dropped 
his dinner and climbed a neighbouring little dead pine tree. The 
bear followed him and climbed it, too. Mi-tsi began to have sad 
thoughts of the words of the fathers. 

"Alas!" he cried; "pity me, my father from the westland! " In 
vain he promised to be good. Yet he knew it was useless to plead 
and that the bear could not listen, for had not Po-shai-an-k'ia com- 
manded him? 

So the black bear seized him by the foot and pulled until Mi-tsi 



Hunting with Indians in New Mexico 105 

screamed with pain; but, cling as he would to the tree, the bear 
pulled him to the ground. Then he lay down on Mi-tsi and pressed 
the wind out of him so that he forgot. The black bear started to go; 
but eyed Mi-tsi. Mi-tsi kicked. Black bear came and pressed his 
wind out again. It hurt Mi-tsi, and he said to himself, " Oh, dear 
me! What shall I do? The father thinks I am not punished 
enough ! " So he kept very still. Black bear started again, then 
stopped again, growled and moved off, for Mi-tsi kept very still. 
Then the black bear went slowly away, looking at Mi-tsi all the 
while, until he passed a little Icnoll. Mi-tsi crawled away and hid 
under a log. Then, when he thought himself man enough, he 
started for Zuni. He was long sick, for the black bear had eaten 
his foot. He " still lives and limps," but he is a good religionist 
and attends strictly to his duties in the Little Fire order. Who shall 
say that Po-shai-an-k'ia did not command? 

Owing to their relationship to Po-shai-an-k'ia the prey 
gods are given high rank among the gods, as " Makers of 
the Paths of Life." The medicine priests therefore hold 
their fetiches in high veneration, keeping them " as in 
captivity " as mediator between themselves and the ani- 
mals represented. In this character they are exhorted 
with elaborate prayers, rituals, dances and other cere- 
monials, the mere recital of which would completely fill 
this book. Grand sacrifices of plumed and painted 
prayer-sticks are annually made by the " Prey Brother 
Priesthood," of the medicine societies, and at the full 
moon of each month lesser sacrifices of the same kind 
by the male members of these societies, at which elaborate 
prayers are ofifered. 

While from all that has been said it is evident that the 
fetich worship of the Zunis has a most important place 
in their life the practical considerations of food call forth 
the highest manifestations of this form of worship. It 
is as aids or directors in the chase that the Wemahe are 
preeminently important. The special priests of the fe- 
tiches used in the chase are all members of the " Great 
Coyote People," and their keepers certain members of the 



106 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

Eagle and Coyote gentes and the Prey Brother priest- 
hood. 

The hunting fetiches are the same as those supposed 
to guard the six world regions, with but two exceptions. 
These are, the Coyote, which takes the place of the Black 
Bear of the west, and the Wild Cat which takes the 
place of the Badger of the south. 

While all these prey gods of the chase have functions 
different from those of the six regions they are yet 
referred to special divisions of the world. In explana- 
tion of this, however, quite another myth is given. This 
myth is part of the great epic from which the former 
story was taken, and it pictures the tribes of the Zunis, 
under the guidance of the Two Children, and the Ka-ka at 
a marsh-bordered lagune situated on the eastern shore of 
the Little Colorado, about fifteen miles north and west 
from the pueblo of San Juan, Arizona, and nearly op- 
posite the mouth of the Rio Concho. This lagune is 
probably formed in the basin or crater or some extinct 
volcano or volcanic spring, as the two high and wonder- 
fully similar mountains on either side are identical in 
formation with those in which occur the Cave-craters 
further south on the same river. It has, however, been 
largely filled in by the debris brought down by the Zuni 
river, which here joins the Little Colorado. 

The following is the myth of the " Distribution of the 
Animals." 

Men began their journey from the Red River, and the Ka-ka 
(Zuni ancient mythical beings) still lived, as they do now, at 
Ko-thlu-el-lon-ne (the Standing Place or City of the Ka-ka), when 
the wonderful family of the Snail People, caused, by means of their 
magic power, all the game animals in the whole world round about 
to gather together in the great forked canyon-valley under their 
town, and there to be hidden. 

The walls of this canyon were high and unsurmountable, and the 



Hunting with Indians in New Mexico 107 

whole valley, although large, was filled full of game animals, so that 
their feet rumbled and rattled together like the sound of distant 
thunder, and their horns crackled like the sounds of a storm in a 
dry forest. All round about the canyon these passing wonderful 
Snail People made a line of magic medicine and sacred meal, which 
road, even as a corral, no game animal, even though great Elk 
or strong buck Deer, could pass. 

Now, it rained many days, and thus the tracks of all these animals 
tending thither were washed away. Nowhere could the Ka-ka, or 
the children of men, although they hunted day after day over the 
plains and mountains, on the mesas and along the canyon-valleys, 
find prey or trace of prey. 

Thus it happened that after many days they grew hungry, almost 
famished. Even the great strong Sha-la-ko and the swift Sa-la- 
mo-pi-a walked zigzag in their trails, from the weakness of hunger. 
At first the mighty Ka-ka and men alike were compelled to eat the 
bones they had before cast away, and at last to devour the soles of 
their moccasins and even the deer-tail ornaments of their dresses, 
for want of the flesh of the game animals. 

Still, day after day, though weak and disheartened, man and the 
Ka-ka sought game in the mountains. At last a great Elk was given 
liberty. His sides shook with tallow; his dew-lap hung like a bag, 
so fleshy was it; his horns spread out like the branches of a dead 
tree; and his crackling hoofs cut the sands and even the rocks as 
he ran westward. He circled far off toward the Red River, passed 
through the Round valley, and into the northern canyons. The 
Sha-la-ko was out hunting. He espied the deep tracks of the Elk 
and fleetly followed him. Passing swift and strong was he, though 
weak from hunger, and ere long he came in sight of the Great Elk. 
The sight gladdened and strengthened him ; but alas ! the Elk kept 
his distance as he turned again toward the hiding-place of his 
brother animals. On and on the Sha-la-ko followed him, until he 
came to the edge of a great canyon, and, peering over the brink, 
discovered the hiding-place of all the game animals of the world. 

" Aha ! so here you all are ! " said he. " I'll hasten back to my 
father, Pa-u-ti-wa, who hungers for flesh, alas! and grows weak." 
And like the wind the Sha-la-ko returned to Ko-thlu-el-lo-ne. En- 
tering, he informed the Ka-ka, and word was sent out by the swift 
Sa-la-mo-pi-a to all the We-ma-a-ha-i for counsel and assistance, 
for they now were the fathers of men and the Ka-ka. The moun- 
tain Lion, the Coyote, the Wild Cat, the Wolf, the Eagle, the Falcon, 
the Ground Owl, and the Mole were summoned, all hungry and 
lean, as were the Ka-ka and the children of men, from want of the 
flesh of the game animals. Nevertheless, they were anxious for the 



108 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 



hunt, and moved themselves quickly among one another in their 
anxiety. Then the passing swift runners, the Sa-la-mo-pi-a, of all 
colours, — the yellow^, the blue, the red, the white, the many coloured, 
and the black, — were summoned to accompany the We-ma-a-ha-i to 
the Snail People. Well they knew that passing wonderful were the 
Snail People, and that no easy matter would it be to overcome their 
medicine and their magic. But they hastened forth until they came 
near to the canyon. Then the Sha-la-ko, who guided them, gave 
directions that they should make themselves ready for the hunt. 

When all were prepared, he opened by his sacred power the magic 
corral on the northern side, and forth rushed a great buck Deer. 

" Long Tail, the corral has been opened for thee. Forth comes 
the game, seize him ! " With great leaps the Mountain Lion over- 
took and threw the Deer to the ground, and fastened his teeth in his 
throat. 

The corral was opened on the western side. Forth rushed a 
Mountain Sheep. 

" Coyote, the corral has been opened for thee. Forth comes thy 
game ; seize him ! " The Coyote dashed swiftly forward. The 
Mountain Sheep dodged him and ran off toward the west. The 
Coyote crazily ran about, yelping and barking after his game, but 
the Mountain Sheep bounded from rock to rock and was soon far 
away. Still the Coyote rushed crazily about until the Mountain 
Lion commanded him to be quiet. But the Coyote smelled the blood 
of the Deer and was beside himself with hunger. Then the Moun- 
tain Lion said to him disdainfully: "Satisfy thy hunger on the 
blood I have spilled, for to-day thou hast missed thy game ; and 
thus ever will thy descendants like thee blunder in the chase. As 
thou this day satisfiest thy hunger, so also by the blood that the 
hunter spills on the flesh that he throws away shall thy descendants 
forever have being." 

The corral was opened on the southern side. An Antelope sprang 
forth. With bounds less strong than those of the Mountain Lion, 
but nimbler, the Wild Cat seized him and threw him to the ground. 

The corral was opened on the eastern side. Forth ran the 0-ho- 
li-o, the Albino Antelope. The Wolf seized and threw him. The 
Jack Rabbit was let out. The Eagle poised himself for a moment, 
then swooped upon him. The Cotton Tail came forth. The Prey 
Mole waited in his hole and seized him ; the Wood Rat, the Falcon 
made him his prey ; the Mouse, and the Ground Owl quickly caught 
him. 

While the We-ma-a-ha-i were thus satisfying their hunger, the 
game animals began to escape through the breaks in the corral. 
Forth through the northern door rushed the Buffalo, the great Elk, 



Hunting with Indians in New Mexico 109 

and the Deer, and toward the north the Mountain Lion and the 
yellow Sa-la-mo-pi-a swiftly followed and herded them to the world 
where stands the yellow mountain, below the great northern ocean. 

Out through the western gap rushed the Mountain Sheep, herded 
and driven by the Coyote and the blue Sa-la-mo-pi-a, toward the 
great western ocean, where stands the ancient blue mountain. 

Out through the southern gap rushed the Antelope, herded and 
driven by the Wild Cat and the red Sa-la-mo-pi-a, toward the great 
land of Summer, where stands the ancient red mountain. 

Out through the eastern gap rushed the Albino Antelope, herded 
and driven by the Wolf and the white Sa-la-mo-pi-a, toward where 
" they say " is the eastern ocean, the " Ocean of Day," wherein stands 
the ancient white mountain. 

Forth rushed in all directions the Jack Rabbits, the Cotton Tails, 
the Rats and the Mice; and the Eagle, the Falcon, and the Ground 
Owl circled high above, toward the great " Sky Ocean," above which 
stands the ancient mountain of many colours ; and they drove them 
over all the earth, that from their homes in the air they could watch 
them in all places ; and the Sa-la-mo-pi-a of many colours rose and 
assisted them. 

Into the earth burrowed the Rabbits, the Rats, and the Mice, from 
the sight of the Eagle, the Falcon, and the Ground Owl; but the 
Prey Mole and the black Sa-la-mo-pi-a thither followed them toward 
the four caverns of earth, beneath which stands the ancient black 
mountain. 

When the earth and winds were filled with rumbling from the 
feet of the departing animals, the Snail People saw that their game 
was escaping; hence the world was filled with the wars of the 
Ka-ka, the Snail People, and the children of men. 

Thus were let loose the game animals of the world. Hence the 
Buffalo, the great Elk, and the largest Deer are found mostly in the 
North, where they are ever pursued by the great Mountain Lion ; 
but with them escaped other animals, and so not alone in the North 
are the Buff'alo, the Great Elk, and the Deer found. 

Among the mountains and the canyons of the West are found the 
Mountain Sheep pursued by the Coyote ; but with them escaped many 
other animals, hence not alone in the West are the Mountain Sheep 
found. 

So, for the same reason, that other animals escaped in the same 
direction, while we find toward the South the Antelope, pursued by 
the Wild Cat ; toward the East the Albino Antelope, pursued by the 
Wolf ; they are not found there alone. 

In all directions escaped the Jack Rabbits, Cotton Tails, Rats, and 
Mice; hence over all the earth are they found. Above them in the 



110 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

skies circle the Eagle, the Falcon, and the Ground Owl ; yet into 
the earth escaped many of them, followed by the Prey Mole ; hence 
beneath the earth burrow many. 

Thus, also, it came to be that the yellow Mountain Lion is the 
Master Prey Being of the North; but his younger brothers — the 
blue, the red, the white, the spotted, and the black Mountain Lions — 
wander over the other regions of earth. Does not the spotted 
Mountain Lion (evidently the Ocelot) live among the high moun- 
tains of the South? 

Thus, too, was it with the Coyote, who is Master of the West, 
but whose younger brothers wander over all the regions ; and thus, 
too, with the Wild Cat and the Wolf. 

This legend thus explains why each of the Prey Ani- 
mals is found in Six colours, each colour determining the 
world division to which it belongs. Yet all are supposed 
to yield allegiance to the chief representative of the fam- 
ily to which they belong. For instance, the Mountain 
Lion is primarily god of the north, but he is supposed 
to have younger brothers in each of the five other world 
divisions : in the West the Blue mountain lion ; in the 
South the Red ; in the East the White ; in the Upper 
Regions the Spotted ; in the lower Regions the Black. 

The result is that one can find a wonderful variety of 
these We-ma-he, made in different colours and material, 
the yellow of yellow limestone, the blue of finely veined 
azurite, or carbonate of copper, the white of white lime- 
stone, etc. 

In some cases the eyes are inlaid pieces of turquoise, 
and the figures are generally smoothly carved and pol- 
ished with great age and constant usage. 

The relative value of these fetiches depends largely 
upon the rank of the animal god they represent. For 
instance, the mountain lion is not only master of the 
North, which takes precedence over all the other An- 
cient Sacred Spaces or regions, but is also the master 
of all the other Prey Gods, if not of all other terrestrial 



Hunting with Indians in New Mexico 111 

animals. Notwithstanding the fact that the Coyote, in 
the Order of the Hunt (the Coyote Society) is given, for 
traditional reasons, higher sacred rank than the Moun- 
tain Lion, he is, as a Prey Being, one degree lower, be- 
ing god of the West, which follows the North in the 
order of importance. Hence we find the Mountain Lion 
and Coyote fetiches far more prized than any of the 
others and correspondingly more numerous. The Coyote 
in rank is younger brother of the Mountain Lion, just 
as the Wild Cat is younger brother of the Coyote, the 
Wolf of the Wild Cat, and so on to the Mole, and less 
important ground Owl. In relationship by blood, how- 
ever, the yellow Mountain Lion is accounted older 
brother of the red, white, yellow, mottled or spotted and 
black Coyotes. So the Wild Cat of the South is re- 
garded as the older brother of the wild cats of all the 
other five regions and thus it is respectively with the 
wolf, the eagle, and the mole. We find, therefore, that 
in the north all the gods»of Prey are represented, as well 
as the Mountain Lion, only they are yellow. In the 
west all are represented as well as the Coyote, only they 
are blue ; and thus throughout the remaining four regions. 

The Mountain Lion is further believed to be the spe- 
cial hunter of the Elk, Deer, and Bison (no longer an 
inhabitant of New Mexico). His fetich, therefore, is 
preferred by the hunter of these animals. So also, is 
the fetich of the Coyote preferred by the hunter of the 
Mountain Sheep; that of the Wild Cat, by the hunter 
of the Antelope; that of the Wolf by the hunter of the 
rare and highly valued Albino Antelope; those of the 
Eagle and Falcon by the hunter of Rabbits ; and that of 
the Mole, by the hunter of other small game. 

The exception to this rule is individual, and founded 
on the belief that any one of the Gods of Prey hunts 



112 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

to some extent the special game of the other Gods of 
Prey. Hence, any person who may discover either a 
concretion or natural object or an ancient fetich calling 
to mind or representing any one of the Prey Gods will 
regard it as his special fetich, and almost invariably 
prefer it, since he believes it to have been meted to 
him by the gods. 

Although these fetiches are thus often individual prop- 
erty, members of the Coyote Society, and of the Eagle 
and Coyote gentes, as well as priests included in the 
Prey God Brotherhood, are required to deposit their 
fetiches, when not in use, with the " Keeper of the 
Medicine of the Deer," who is usually, if not always, 
the head member of the Eagle gens. 

It rests with these memberships and these alone to 
perfect the fetiches when found, and to carry on at stated 
intervals the ceremonials and worship connected with 
them. 

When not in use, either for ceremonials or for the 
hunt, these tribal fetiches are kept in a very ancient 
vessel of wicker-work, in the House of the Deer Medicine, 
which is usually the dwelling place of the keeper. 

The principal ceremonial connected with the worship 
of the Prey Beings takes place either a little before or a 
little after the winter solstice, or the national New Year, 
and is called " The Day of the Council of the Fetiches." 

They are all taken from their place of deposit, and ar- 
ranged, according to species and colour, in front of a 
symbolic altar on the floor of the underground council 
chamber. The Eagles and other winged fetiches are 
suspended from the rafters by means of cotton cords. 

The ceremonials last through the latter two-thirds of 
a night. Each member on entering approaches the altar 
and with prayer-meal in hand addresses a long prayer 



The New Mexico Desert Region in Winter. 
From a Painting by Wallace L. DelVolf. 



^;6^vWj^ 




Hunting with Indians in New Mexico 113 

to the assembly of fetiches, at the close of which he 
scatters the prayer-meal over them, breathes on and from 
his hand, and takes his place in the Council. An open- 
ing prayer-chant lasting from one to three hours, is 
then sung at intervals, in which various members dance 
to the sound of constant rattles, imitating at the close 
of each stanza the cries of the beasts represented by the 
fetiches. 

At the conclusion of the song, the " Keeper of the 
Deer Medicine," who is the master priest of the occasion, 
leads off in the recitation of a long metrical ritual, in 
which he is followed by the two warrior priests with 
shorter recitations and by a prayer from another priest 
(of uncertain rank). During these recitations, responses 
may be heard from the whole assembly, and at their close, 
at or after sunrise, all members flock around the altar 
and repeat, prayer-meal in hand, a concluding invocation. 
This is followed by a liberal feast, principally of game, 
which is brought in and served by the women, with addi- 
tional recitations and ceremonials. At this feast, por- 
tions of each kind of food are taken out by every member 
for the Prey Gods, which portions are sacrificed by the 
priests, together with the proper plume-sticks, several 
of which are supplied by each member. 

Similar midnight ceremonials, but briefer, are observed 
on the occasion of the great midwinter tribal hunts, the 
times for which are fixed by the Keeper of the Deer 
Medicine, and the master and warrior priests of the 
Coyote Society. 

Any hunter, provided he be one privileged to par- 
ticipate in the above described ceremonials — namely, a 
Prey Brother — supplies himself, when preparing for the 
chase, not only with his weapons, etc., but also with a 
favourite or appropriate prey fetich. In order to pro- 



114 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

cure the latter he proceeds, sooner or later before start- 
ing, to the House of the Deer Medicine, where* the vessel 
containing the fetiches is brought forth by the Keeper 
or some substitute and placed before him. Facing in 
the direction of the region to which belongs the par- 
ticular fetich he desires to use, he sprinkles into and 
over the vessel sacred prayer or medicine meals. 

Then, holding a small quantity of the meal in his left 
hand, over the region of his heart, he removes his head- 
band and utters the following prayer: 

This day, my father (or, my mother), here I (as if), unexpectedly, 
meet thee with whatsoever I have made ready of the sacred things 
of my father, the priest-gods of the sacred dances, the priest-gods 
of the Prey beings. These sacred things bringing I have here over- 
taken thee, and with their good fortune I here address thee. Wish- 
ing for that whereby thou hast being, I shall go forth from here 
prayfully upon the trails of my earth-mother. 

Throughout the whole of this great country, they whereby thou 
hast being, the deer, by the command of thy wind of life (breath), 
wander about. It is wishing for their flesh and blood that I shall 
go forth yonder prayfully over the trails. 

Let it be without fail that thou shalt make me happy with that 
whereby thou hast being. Grant unto me the height of thy favour. 

Then scattering forth the prayer-meal in the direction 
he proposes to take on the hunt, he chooses from the 
vessel the fetich, and pressing it to or toward his lips, 
breathes from it and exclaims : 

Ah, thanks, my father, this day I shall follow thee forth over the 
trails. Prayfully over the trails shall I go out. 

Should a party be going to the hunt together, all re- 
pair to the House of the Deer Medicine, repeating, one 
by one, the above prayers and ceremonials as the fetiches 
are drawn. 

The fetich is then placed in a little crescent-shaped 
bag of buckskin which the hunter wears suspended over 



Hunting with Indians in New Mexico 115 

the left breast (or heart), by a buckskin thong, which is 
tied above the right shoulder. With it he returns home, 
where he hangs it up in his room and awaits a favourable 
rain- or snow-storm, meanwhile, if but a few days elapse, 
retaining the fetich in his own house. 

If a hunter be not a member of the orders above men- 
tioned, while he must ask a member to secure a fetich 
for him, in the manner described, still he is quite as privi- 
leged to use it as is the member himself, although his 
chances of success are not supposed to be so good as those 
of the proper owner. 

During his journey out the hunter picks from the 
heart of the yucca, or Spanish bayonet, a few thin 
leaves, and on reaching the point where an animal which 
he wishes to capture has rested, or whence it has newly 
taken flight, he deposits, together with certain sacrifices, 
a spider knot, made of four strands of the yucca leaves. 
This knot must be tied like the ordinary cat-knot, bent in- 
variably from right to left, so that the ends of the four 
strands shall spread out from the center as the legs of a 
spider from its body. The knot is further character- 
ized by being tied quite awkwardly, as if by a mere child. 
It is deposited on the spot over which the heart of the 
animal is supposed to have rested or passed. Then a 
forked twig of cedar is cut and stuck very obliquely into 
the ground, so that the prongs stand in a direction oppo- 
site to that of the course taken by the animal and imme- 
diately in front, as it were, of the fore part of its heart, 
which is represented as entangled in the knot. 

The hunter then imitates the roar of the animal which 
his fetich represents, and this whole ceremonial is com- 
plete. It is supposed to limit the power of the flight of 
the animal sought, to confine him within a narrow circle, 
and, together with an additional ceremonial which is in- 



116 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

variably performed, even without the other, is supposed to 
render it a sure prey. This is performed only after the 
track has been followed until either the animal is in sight, 
or a place is discovered where it had lain down. Then, 
in exactly the spot over which the heart of the animal is 
supposed to have rested, the hunter deposits a sacrifice of 
corn pollen, sacred black war paint, — a kind of plumbago, 
containing shining particles, and procured by barter from 
the Havasupai Indians, and the sacred mines of the 
West — and prayer or sacred meal, made from white 
seed-corn (emblematic of terrestrial life or of the foods 
of mankind), fragments of shell, sand from the ocean, 
and sometimes turquoise of green stone, ground very 
fine, and invariably carried in pouches by all members of 
the sacred societies of Zuni. To this mixture sacred 
shell-beads or coral are sometimes added. Then, taking 
out the fetich, he breathes on it and from it, and exclaims 
" Si ! " which signifies " the time has come," or that 
everything is in readiness. He then prays: 

Si! This day, my father, thou game animal, even though thy 
trail one day and one night hast (been made) round about ; how- 
ever, grant unto me one step of my earth-mother. Wanting thy 
life-blood, wanting thy flesh, hence I here address to thee good for- 
tune, address to thee treasure. 

All ye woods that fill (the country) round about me, (do) grasp 
for me strongly. [This expression beseeches that the logs, sticks, 
branches, brambles, bushes, and vines shall impede the progress of 
the chased animal.] My fathers, favour me. Grant unto me the 
light of your favour, do. 

The hunter then takes out his fetich, places its nostrils 
near his lips, breathes deeply from them, as though to in- 
hale the supposed magic breath of the God of Prey, and 
puff's long and quite loudly in the general direction 
whither the tracks tend. He then utters three or four 
times a long, long cry of " Hu-u-u-u ! " It is supposed 



Hunting with Indians in New Mexico 117 

that the breath of the god breathed in temporarily by 
the hunter, and breathed outward toward the heart of 
the pursued animal will overcome the latter and stiffen 
his limbs, so that he will fall an easy prey; and that the 
low roar, as from a beast of prey, will enter his con- 
sciousness and frighten him, so as to conceal from him 
the knowledge of any approach. 

The hunter then rises, replaces his fetich, and pursues 
the trail with all possible ardour, until he either strikes 
the animal down by means of his weapons, or so worries 
it by long-continued chase that it becomes an easy cap- 
ture. Before the " breath of life " has left the fallen 
deer (if it be such), he places its forefeet back of its 
horns and, grasping its mouth, holds it firmly closed, 
while he applies his lips to its nostrils and breathes as 
much wind into them as possible, again inhaling from 
the lungs of the dying animal into his own. Then let- 
ting go he exclaims : 

Ah ! Thanks, my father, my child. Grant unto me the seeds of 
earth (daily bread), and the gift of water. Grant unto me the light 
of thy favour, do. 

As soon as the animal is dead he lays open its viscera, 
cuts through the diaphragm, and makes an incision in the 
aorta, or in the sac which encloses the heart. He then 
takes out the prayer fetich, breathes on it, and addresses 
it thus : 

Si! My father, this day of the blood of a game being thou shalt 
water thyself (drink). With it thou shalt enlarge (add unto) thy 
heart. 

He then dips the fetich into the blood which the sac 
still contains, continuing the prayer meanwhile, speaking 
very quietly but with the utmost solemnity, as fol- 
lows : 



118 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

Likewise, I, a done being, with the blood, the flesh of a raw 
being (game animal), shall enlarge (add unto) my heart. 

Which finished, he scoops up, with his hand, some of 
the blood and sips it, then, tearing forth the liver, eagerly 
devours a part of it, and exclaims, " Thanks! " 

While skinning and quartering the game he takes 
care to cut out the tragus or little inner lobe of the ear, 
the clot of blood within the heart, -and to preserve some 
of the hair. Before leaving, he forms of these and of 
the black paint, corn-pollen, beads of turquoise and tur- 
quoise dust, and sacred shell of broken shell and coral 
beads before mentioned, a ball, and on the spot where 
the animal ceased to breathe, he digs a grave, as it were, 
and deposits therein, with prayer-meal, this strange mix- 
ture, meanwhile saying the following prayer: 

Si ! This day, game animal, even though, for a day and a night 
thy trail above (the earth) circled about — this day it has come to 
pass that I have embraced thee upward (from it). To thee here I 
address good fortune. To thee here I address the (sacred) pollen. 
To thee here I address treasure. By thy (magic) knowledge dress- 
ing thyself with this good fortune, with this yellow, with this treas- 
ure, do thou, in becoming a new being, converse with (or, of) my 
prayer as you wander to and fro. 

That I may become unfailing toward the game animals all, I have 
here addressed myself unto thee good fortune, the yellow and 
treasure. 

Grant unto me the light of thy favour. 

Grant unto me a good (journey) over the trail of life, and, to- 
gether with children, make the road of my existence, do. 

During the performance of these ceremonials the fetich 
is usually placed in a convenient spot to dry, and at their 
conclusion, with a blessing, it is replaced in the pouch. 
The hunter either seeks farther for game, or, making 
a pack of his game in its own skin by tving the legs to- 
gether and crossing them over his forehead like a burden 
strap, returns home and deposits it either at the door or 



Hunting with Indians in New Mexico 119 

just within. The women then come, and breathing from 
the nostrils, take the dead animal to the center of the 
room, where, placing its head toward the east, they lay on 
either side of its body next to the heart an ear of corn 
(significant of renewed life), and say prayers, which, 
though short, are not less interesting and illustrative of the 
subject than those already given. 

The fetich is returned to the Keeper of the Deer Medi- 
cine with thanksgiving and a prayer, not unlike that of- 
fered on taking it forth. It contains a sentence consign- 
ing the fetich to its house with its relatives, speaking 
of its quenched thirst, satisfied hunger, and the prospects 
of future conquests, etc. 

It is believed that without recourse to these fetiches 
or to prayers and other inducements toward the game ani- 
mals, especially the deer tribe, it would be useless to at- 
tempt the chase. Untrammeled by the Medicine of the 
Deer, the power of the fetiches, or the animals of prey 
represented, the larger game is unconquerable; and no 
man, however great his endurance, is accounted able to 
overtake or to weary them. It thus happens that few 
hunters venture forth without a fetich, even though they 
belong to none of the memberships before mentioned. 
Indeed, the wearing of these fetiches becomes almost as 
universal as is the wearing of amulets and " medicines " 
among other nations and Indian tribes; since they are 
supposed to bring to their rightful possessors or holders, 
not only success in the chase and in war (in the case of the 
warriors or Priests of the Bow), but also good fortune in 
other matters. 

The successful hunter is typical of possession, since the 
products of the chase yield him food, apparel, ornament, 
and distinction. It is therefore argued with strange logic 
that, even though one may not be a hunter, there must 



120 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

exist a connection between the possessions of the hunter 
and his own possessions and that he comes by these prin- 
cipally through the fetiches. A man therefore counts it 
the greatest of good fortune when he happens to find 
either a natural or artificial object resembling one of 
the animals of prey. He presents it to a proper member 
of the Prey Brotherhood, together with the appropriate 
flint arrow-point and the desirable amount of ornaments 
for dressing and finishing, as soon as possible. 

With the Zunis as with other Indian peoples there are 
many religious societies. One of the most influential 
of these is the " Priesthood of the Bow." This priest- 
hood has its fetiches, similar to the ones described, and 
in addition a higher being or god known as the " Knife- 
Feathered Monster." This curious god i» the hero of 
hundreds of folk-lore tales, and the tutelary deity of 
several of the societies of Zuni. He is represented as 
possessing a human form, furnished with flint knife- 
feathered pinions, and tail. His dress consists of the con- 
ventional terraced cap, representative of his dwelling- 
place among the clouds, and the ornaments, badge and 
garments of the Ka-ka. His weapons are the Great Flint 
Knife of war, the Bow of the Skies (Rainbow), and 
the Arrow of Lightning, and his Guardians or Warriors 
are the great Mountain Lion of the north and that of 
the upper regions. 

He was doubtless the original War God of the Zunis, 
although now secondary, in the order of war, to the 
great god, Unahikah, and the two Children of the Sun 
mentioned elsewhere. 

Anciently he was inimical to man, stealing and carry- 
ing away to his city in the skies the women of all nations, 
until subdued by other gods and men of magic powers. 
At present he is friendly to them, rather in the sense of 



Hunting with Indians in New Mexico 121 

an animal whose food temporarily satisfies him, than in 
the beneficent character of most of the gods of Zuni. 

These fetiches of the Priesthood of the Bow are car- 
ried by the warriors, when abroad, in pouches like those 
of the hunters, and in a similar manner. They are, how- 
ever, not returned to the headquarters of the society when 
not in use, but, being regarded as parts of a warrior's 
personal medicine of destruction are always kept near 
■him. 

The ceremonial observed by a Priest of the Bow when 
traveling alone in a country w*here danger is to be ap- 
prehended from the enemy, may be taken as most il- 
lustrative of the regard in which the fetiches of his 
order are held. 

Under such circumstances the warrior takes out his 
fetich from the pouch, and, scattering a pinch or two of 
sacred meal toward each of the four quarters with his 
right hand, holds it in his left hand over his breast and 
kneels or squats on the ground while uttering the follow- 
ing prayer : 

Si! This day, my fathers, ye animal gods, ahhough this country 
be filled with enemies, render me precious. That my existence may 
not be in any way so ever unexpectedly dared by the enemy, thus, 
O ! Shelter give ye to me (from them). 

At this point, while still continuing the prayer, he 
scratches or cuts in the earth or sands with the edge of 
the arrow-point, which is lashed to the back or feet of 
the fetich, a line about five or six inches in length. 

(In order) that none of the enemy may pass through (this line) 
hence, O! Shelter give ye to me (from them). Long Tail (Moun- 
tain Lion), Knife-feathered (God of the knife wings), O, give ye 
shelter of my heart from them. 

On the conclusion of this prayer the fetich is breathed 
upon and replaced, or sometimes withheld until after 



122 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

the completion of the war song and other chants in which 
the three gods mentioned above are, with others, named 
and exhorted, thereby, in the native behef, rendering pro- 
tection doubly certain. 

Before following the trail of an enemy, on finding 
his camp, or on overtaking and destroying him, many 
ceremonials are performed, many prayers are uttered, 
much the same as those described relative to the chase, 
save that they are most elaborate. As with the hunter, 
so with the warrior, the fetich is fed on the life-blood 
of the slain. 

There are other fetiches that the Zuni prize highly 
and use as implements of worship, and as amulets or 
charms for a variety of purposes. They may rudely be 
divided into three classes : 

1. Concretions and other strange rock formations, 
which, on account of their forms, are thought to have 
been portions of the gods, of their weapons, implements, 
and ornaments or their " wherewithals of being." 

2. The sacred relics of the gods, which are supposed 
to have been given to man directly by their possessors, 
in the " days of the new," and include the " Gifts of the 
Gods." 

3. The magic " medicines " which are used as pro- 
tective, curative, and productive agencies and are known 
as the " contained," and the " medicines." 

One object, a mere concretion, will have something 
about it suggesting the human scrotum. This will be re- 
garded as having belonged to some ancient being, and will 
be highly prized, not only as a means of approaching the 
spirit of the god to whom it is supposed to have once 
belonged, but also, to a young lover, as a valuable aid 
in his conquests of the woman of his choice, or to a young 
married woman in her hope to bear male children. 



Hunting with Indians in New Mexico 123 

Certain minerals or fossils, etc., are regarded as be- 
longing to, or parts of, the gods, yet will be used as medi- 
cines of war or the chase, or for the purpose of produc- 
ing water, or stimulating the growth of crops, to say- 
nothing of their efficacy as cures, or sources of strength, 
etc. One fetich by its shape is supposed to be the relic 
of the weapon or tooth of a god, and therefore endowed 
with magical " medicine " powers. Hence it is pre- 
served for generations — with an interminable variety of 
other things — in the Order of the Warriors, as the " pro- 
tective medicine of war." A little of it, rubbed on a 
stone and mixed with much water, is a powerful medicine 
for protection, with which the warrior fails not to anoint 
his whole body before entering battle. 



CHAPTER IX 

ACOMA, THE CITY OF THE CLIFFS 

Undeniably one of the scenic wonders of the world, 
Acoma, to me, is the most fascinating city in America. 
Yet it is but an Indian pueblo, inhabited by a mere hand- 
ful of people — a few hundred, — and they possess none 
of the wealth, learning, science, arts, craftsmanship, pro- 
gressiveness that go to make up so much of the charm 
of the general run of our American cities. 

There certainly is no " general run " in determining 
the place Acoma shall hold in one's affections. It stands 
almost alone, — not quite, for there are other mesa cities 
in the West — in its pure originality and strikingly assert- 
ive individuality, qualities that present themselves so dar- 
ingly that one feels them almost flaunting in their insist- 
ence. 

Imagine riding over a country of valleys, ravines cut 
through great table-lands, mesas or almost mountain 
ranges of red or pinkish sandstone. There are thousands 
of acres of lava, which in past ages flowed from an 
adjacent volcano, now a snow-clad mountain, ii,ooo 
feet high. Yonder are vast piles of accumulated sand, 
blown hither by the winds of the centuries. At our feet 
flows the lazy creek of San Jose de Guadalupe. We pass 
Laguna — an Indian pueblo — on the main line of the 
Santa Fe, seventy-one and a half miles west of Albuquer- 
que, and ten miles further on turn squarely to the south. 
In a few minutes we are in a valley elsewhere described 
in these pages that transcends the imaginative powers 
of all but world-wide mountain travelers. There is noth- 

124 



Acoma, the City of the Cliffs 125 

ing like it in all the Middle West, East, North and South 
and scarce anything that approximates it in Europe. The 
far-famed Garden of the Gods in Colorado is a child's 
playroom compared with its grand majesties. Gibraltar 
after Gibraltar arises, sheer and precipitous, out of the 
sand, with this difference, that from whichever way 
you approach them they are equally bold and striking. 
Five or six miles down the valley we come to the most 
commanding " rock island " of them all. Nearing its 
base are a number of gnarled and scraggly junipers, while 
at its very foot, on all sides, are piles of talus showing the 
cliff is still in the process of disintegration. This is the 
Mesa Encantada, called by the Indians " Katzimo," and 
which forms the subject of the next chapter. 

Passing this noble rock we can see, on a similar, but 
broader- faced, cliff, three miles away, a long ridge that 
we are told is Acoma — the City of the Cliffs. First seen 
of white men by Hernando de Alvarado and twenty 
men, sent on by the wounded Coronado from Zuni, it 
dazzled and astounded him as it has since done every 
traveler that has gazed upon it. 

There are some scenes looked upon for the first time, 
and perhaps never seen again, that yet fasten themselves 
forever in one's memory. Such is the first sight of New 
York's gigantic buildings and spider-web-like bridges 
from the deck of an incoming steamer; St. Paul's tower- 
ing over London; the Pyramids from Cairo; the Grand 
Canyon; Fuji-Yama above the clouds; or better still, 
Popocatapetl or Mt. Everest. Of a similar character is 
Acoma; and it is not a view that grows less impressive 
with the lapse of time. There is a power, a dignity, a 
majesty, that ever remains, and the oftener it is seen the 
more one yields to its allure. 

Apparently inaccessible, how can one reach the sum- 



126 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

mit? There are several trails, none of them boldly ap- 
parent, however. If one can spare the time before climb- 
ing to the top he should go completely around the mesa. 
He will find it precipitous from every side, irregular 
in shape, almost divided into two parts, Hke a pair of 
eye-glasses, a small saddle representing the bridge. But 
almost in every direction, detached from the main walls, 
are towers and pillars, columns and rocky masses one 
finds it hard to describe, but all alike of great height and 
ponderous majesty. Here is one of Lummis's fine de- 
scriptions : 

Three miles south of the Mesa Encantada is the most splendid 
specimen of fantastic erosion on this continent. An " island " in the 
air; a rock with overhanging sides nearly four hundred feet high, 
seventy acres in area on the fairly level top, indented vv^ith countless 
great bays, notched with dizzy chasms, flanked by vast buttresses so 
sheer Assyrian in their chance carving by the rain that one could 
believe the builders of Nineveh had learned their trade here, so 
labyrinthine in its perimeter that no man will find the last word of it. 

The commonest used trail to the top is on the south- 
east, where, originally, toe- and finger-holds alone made 
ascent possible. In late years rocks and split pieces of 
cord-wood have been laid up as steps, rendering the trail 
much easier of negotiation. Yet there are places where 
the timid and fearful, men as well as women, hesitate and 
question their ability to climb. 

A little further around, where the sand has been 
whirled about by the winds of centuries and piled close 
to the rocky wall, a horse trail has been laboriously built 
up, and one may ride to the summit. I say may advis- 
ably, for only the more daring and expert of cowboys 
would venture to do so. On the north side is still an- 
other trail, practically made by the piled-up sand. It is 
not a commonly traveled trail, however, the only time I 
know of its being used by any outsider was when a 



Acoma, the City of the Cliffs 127 

dramatic representation of the coming of San Diego 
to Spain was given in Acoma. The other trails are 
mere toe- and finger-holes cut into the rocks where clefts 
of erosion have rendered ascent possible. 

Imagine an enemy attempting to scale trails of this 
nature, with its defenders aware and alert. We often 
hear the expression about one man standing off an army. 
Here, were old methods of warfare followed, it would 
be literally true, for he would be more than athlete who 
would hang on by toes and fingers and yet use any primi- 
tive weapon of offense or defense. 

How can people live on such a barren rocky height? 
Where is their water supply? Whence do they gain their 
food? 

These, indeed, are practical questions, and in the light 
of our civilization alone would be hard to answer, for 
the nearest spring is about half a mile from the base 
of the cliff, and the cornfields, gardens, and orchards of 
the Acomese are several miles away. 

Watch these maidens, bearing ollas on their heads! 
They are coming down the trail for water. Do they 
take the comparatively easy horse trail? No! See! 
They balance their empty water-jars on their heads as 
nonchalantly and easily as though they were a part of 
themselves, and fairly glide — almost fly it seems — 
down from toe-hole to toe-hole. Their return is even 
more wonderful, for with the ollas filled they make the 
same precarious ascent in the same easy fashion without 
spilling a drop. 

When the corn and other produce is brought from the 
fields it is now generally taken upon the backs of burros, 
yet I have seen the heaviest loads " packed " up these toe- 
trails on the back of a man as readily as the maidens carry 
their water-jars. 



128 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

" But why is it necessary for them to Hve on such in- 
accessible heights? " asks the incredulous visitor, who has 
not yet adjusted himself to the strange conditions, and 
can hardly believe what his own eyes see. 

Go back a few centuries, when these mesa heights were 
first chosen as dwelling places. These were a peaceful 
and sedentary people. They were weary of the nomadic 
life. They wanted to settle down. Around them were 
predatory tribes, wild, savage, hungry peoples, who knew 
no law but that of the present-day Hun — the law of de- 
sire and brutal seizure. If they accumulated food it 
was liable to be ruthlessly taken from them when most 
necessary to their existence. If they made blankets, 
dressed the skins of animals, prepared sandals, wove gar- 
ments for their women, made pottery — all, all, was sub- 
ject to plunder, and, indeed, served as an invitation to 
the lawless roaming bands to come and help themselves. 
Hence a site must be chosen for their homes that was hard 
of access and easily defensible, where, the major part 
of the men being away, a few, even the women alone, 
could hold the fort. 

This motive is more clearly seen when the top of the 
trail is reached. The town is built in three great parallel 
blocks, with the merest suggestion of an alley-way between 
them. Seen from below the outer wall seems to be part 
of the mesa height, or carved out of the solid rock. This 
sheer, blank wall is three stories high and presents a 
bold, naked, inhospitable front to the invader. On the 
other side is one of the few remaining examples of true 
Pueblo architecture, — changed, of course, to meet the 
conditions of our kinder and more protective civilization, 
but still speaking clearly to those who can hear of the 
savage and cruel days when it was first erected. Three 
stories high, each story a terrace, the second receding 



Acoma, the City of the Cliffs 129 

from the first and the third from the second, the in- 
habitant climbed twelve or fifteen feet to the first roof, 
pulled the ladder up after him and was secure against an 
enemy who had no other weapons than bow and arrows, a 
lance, or a battle-ax. He lived in the upper stories, using 
the ground floor as storage, making of the roof of one 
story a courtyard, and an open-air living-place of the 
one above, or spreading thereon his corn, melons, or beans 
to dry in the midday sun. 

Even those least susceptible to the hardships and dan- 
gers in the lives of others must be touched by what this 
type of architecture reveals. The dwellers in these 
homes were surrounded by Indians who were hostile, 
cruel and rapacious. Every comfort must be secondary 
to safety. Here, indeed, was the motto practically in- 
vented and perforce used in every movement of life. — 
Safety first! 

In our life it requires vision, knowledge, and imagina- 
tion to conceive of such conditions. Their every thought 
must be for safety, every eye trained to watchfulness, 
every muscle to activity, every child to readiness. Dan- 
ger, wounds, pillage, abduction, death, might lurk be- 
hind every rock. Every moment cried out be vigilant, 
be watchful, be aware. Here was a compulsory educa- 
tion in a far sterner school than a weak and flabby civili- 
zation has dreamed of. Our entry into the great war has 
given us a taste, under new and more inventive condi- 
tions, of what these primitive inhabitants of America had 
as their steady diet. 

There are two great, natural, rocky reservoirs on the 
Acoma mesa. One is a little below the tall black wall of 
defense, and the other is on the other section, away from 
the houses. To reach the first one, the maidens and 
women descend a steep trail and then go down a precipi- 



130 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

tous wall as if into a gigantic well, scaling it as if they 
were big flies, their ollas, empty or full, as skillfully bal- 
anced on the tops of their heads as if Nature had fitted 
them there. On my last visit, in December of 19 17, the 
water was quite low, and until the sun had reached beyond 
the intervening walls, was frozen over. A score or more 
of the boys and girls had followed me around for the 
candy they knew my pockets were always full of, and 
laughingly I threw a handful of it on to the ice below. 
In a moment there was a wild race and scramble down 
the precarious footholds to get the coveted " dulces " and 
the spectators above had not only the fun of watching 
the sliding and falling of the youngsters on the ice and 
their eager and good natured scuffling for the candy, but 
also the thrill at their skillful daring and perfect uncon- 
sciousness, as they flew down that terrible and breathless 
trail. 

Let us study the houses of these pleasant- faced, soft- 
voiced, gentle and hospitable people. Doors and win- 
dows have been placed in first story rooms, now, and they 
are dwelling places instead of storage rooms and cellars. 
Yet most of the people follow " the ways of the old " and 
live in the rooms on the second and third stories. The 
quaintest little steps lead from the one to the other, built 
upon the dividing walls, and here and there one finds 
chimneys made by a convenient adaptation of ollas, the 
bottoms knocked out, piled, half a dozen of them, one 
above another and cemented together. In harvest time 
the roofs are covered with spread out fruit, vegetables, 
grains, etc., for drying, before they are removed to the 
store-rooms below. Here and there, in hidden corners, 
are bee-hive-like ovens, by the side of which are great 
piles of cedar wood, and interesting it is to see the busy 
housewives at their cooking and baking. The fire is 



Acoma, the City of the Cliffs 131 

made in the oven and allowed to burn down to the hottest 
kind of coals. These are then scraped out, the oven jfloor 
hastily swept or mopped out, and the bread or meat to be 
baked thrust inside. Then a slab of rock is placed as a 
door and its edges plastered with mud so that no heat or 
vapours can escape. When the food is taken out no chef 
in the well-equipped kitchen of a modern hotel can find 
fault with the way the oven has performed its functions. 
The corn-grinding troughs are inside the houses. In 
square compartments like boxes on the floor, the slabs of 
basic rock are laid at an angle. Three, four, six of these 
boxes form a continuous series across one end of the 
room. Kneeling before these, the grinding stone sloping 
as does a washboard in a tub, the woman picks up a nar- 
row slab of similar rock, which, holding in both hands, 
she moves up and down upon the fixed and larger slab in 
the trough or box. Between these two rocks the grain is 
thrown, the upper side of the narrow slab being beveled 
to allow the kernels to fall in between the two slabs and 
thus be ground. With a dexterous hand the grinder, now 
and again, reaches down, picks up the unground or half 
ground grain, and tosses it along the line of the bevel, not 
losing her rhythmic up and down movement. Generally 
she sings, — unless, of course, when white " company " is 
present, — and when a dozen, twenty, or more women, at 
adjacent troughs, or in near-by houses, all sing together 
the effect is unusually pleasing. To those who deem In- 
dian music a poetryless, meaningless, melodyless jumble 
of sounds, I commend the following, transcribed by Na- 
talie Curtis — now Mrs. Burlin. Many a time I have 
heard a solitary grinder begin this song, then in a few 
moments, another voice in another house would take up 
the melody : soon a third, then a fourth, until the whole 
street, or, mayhap, the whole pueblo would resound and 



132 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 



reecho the melody from housetop to housetop. Then the 
sun would shine the brighter and the air become more 
exhilarating because of its sweetness and cheer. 

Near the grinding trough is the "pole of the sofi 
stuff " suspended by rawhide thongs from the roof beams. 
Upon this hang the blankets, mantas and other woven 
materials, and the dressed skins of deer and antelope, for 
this is the clothes-closet, the wardrobe, the chiffonier of 
the Indian woman. 



Corn-Grinding Song 



(Autj 




til • an . ol, Tzi wa - sho i 

wa. -tefj _Life a . new to 



ra - nl- -I, h« - yo ye! 

nun who drinks! he ■ ye ye! 




1 Copyright. Used by kind permission of the author and arrange- 
ment with the publisher, G. Schirmer, New York. 



Acoma, the City of the Cliffs 133 



TTjj^ \ })})n\ n jj i J. ji .H J I ji JM 



Yu -weh pu-ni.a- -ko - e - ko - 11 - ka,_ 

Look where South - cast clouds are bringing rain,. 



To - weh 
Look where 




ha-ni.a- -ko - e . ko - 11 - ka,_ 

South - west clouds are bringing rain, 



Tzi wa - sho i - ya - ni - i, 
Life a - new to him who drinks! 




0.1. I)> 


tf 


^ 


i* 


tt# 


if 


»# 


i# 


h'' ' r 


i^E 


^ 


fe 


-^ 






=^ 


^^ 


H 


=^ 


^^= 


w 


k^ 


^= 


W 




wai- - .til - an - ni, Tzi wa - sho I - 

..'^°'!;.''° '^- -'^'^- - -ter, Life a - new to 




134 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 



ko - e - ko ■ li - ka, 

clouds are bringing rain, 



Yu weh ha-Di - a- ko e . ko-ll - ka^. 

Look where South . west clouds are bringing rain, 




-ho wai. ^^ -til. an ni, 

-ho, won - der- -wa- -ter, 



Tzi wa - sho i - jra • ni- -I, 
Life a . new to him who drinksl 




he-ye 
he -ye 



Yu - weh pu - ni - a- -ko e- -ko - li - ka,_ 
Look where South - east clouds are bring-ing rain, 



Acoma, the City of the Cliifs 



135 



Yu . weh ha-ni-a- -ko - e - ko - li - ka,_ 
Look where South - west clouds are bring-ing raiiv 



"Ta wa 
Life a ■ 



sbo i ■ 
new to 




The sleeping room is also the Hving quarter and except 
where the inhabitants have been to one of our many In- 
dian schools, such as Carlisle, Phoenix, Riverside, or have 
attended an agency school and there learned to sleep on 
a white man's bedstead and mattress, the bed is the floor. 
Sheep or deer skins are thrown down or blankets spread 
out, and the sleep there is just as refreshing, nay, far 
more so, than upon the soft mattress of our luxurious- 
loving age. 

When I first visited the Indians there were no tables 
in use; nor did one think of a table-cloth. The food was 
placed upon the floor, the liquids in baskets or clay bowls, 
and the solids on saucer-like or plaque-baskets made by 
the women. The family and guests squatted down wher- 
ever each one desired, and the women either served, or 
each one helped himself. It is hard to make a stranger 
to the Indians either understand or believe that such a 
meal, served in this primitive fashion, could be dignified 
or accompanied with a courtesy that would make it long 
remembered. Yet it is so, and no observing person could 



136 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

partake of such a meal without being impressed and de- 
lighted, for it demonstrates that real " manners " are not 
solely the result of civilization and the possession of the 
white race, but are the unconscious expression of the 
dignity and kindness that may exist within the heart of 
the rudest man. 

The fire-place of these quaint houses is an open hearth, 
generally located in a corner of the room, the walls 
of which are white and clean, being plastered with adobe 
and freshly white-washed each year before one of the 
annual fiestas. Cooking, boiling, etc., used to be done in 
baskets, hot rocks being taken from the fire and thrown 
into the substance to be cooked for that purpose. A stick 
with a hooked or looped end was used to pick up the 
rocks from the fire, or fish them out of the heated water, 
stew, or mush. 

Nowadays, however, modern pots, pans, kettles, skillets 
and broilers are used, the Indian having taken kindly to 
our foods, and our methods of preparing them, though 
they still preserve many of their old habits of eating and 
indulge in their ancient foods, ours being a graft upon 
their own rather than a substitution. 

In marriage they are generally monogamous, though 
polygamy is not infrequent among them. The influences 
of the church and the agent have been in favour of the 
former, of course, but to the Indian it is not a matter of 
morals or righteousness. Whether he has one wife or 
more depends entirely upon his own will, his attractive- 
ness to the women, and somewhat upon his readiness and 
vi^illingness to assume the responsibilities of an enlarged 
matrimonial experience. I was about to write after the 
word " willingness " something about " supporting " an 
additional partner, but this was purely involuntary upon 
my part, a proof of the natural operations of the brain 




Photograph by George Wharton James. 

THE GOVERNOR OF LAGUNA. 



Acoma, the City of the Cliffs 137 

along instinctive lines. For, naturally, a white man as- 
sumes, without thought, that he, the man, must " sup- 
port " the woman. With the Pueblos no such thought 
arises. The sexes help support each other ; it is a genuine 
partnership ; there is no " economic dependence." The 
woman is as good a farmer as the man, and while it is 
freely confessed that it is the duty and privilege of the 
man to do the hunting of wild animals, the flocks of the 
domestic sheep and goats are more often the property 
of the woman, which her husband must not touch or sell 
without her permission. 

In government each of the pueblos has ever been a 
true republic, with each man and woman having a voice 
in all of its affairs. Officers are elected annually and 
perform the duties of governor, lieutenant governor, war- 
chief, etc., and a board of principales discusses and de- 
cides upon matters of every kind pertaining to the wel- 
fare of the people. More important in their functions 
than any other officers are the caciques. These are men 
instinctively chosen, rather than elected or appointed, be- 
cause of their high moral character, wisdom and general 
helpfulness. They ar^ more than the shamans or medi- 
cine men, although they often act in this capacity. To 
them are referred all the weightier concerns of the pueblo, 
such as the disposal of a witch or wizard, of special pe- 
titions to Those Above to turn away pestilence or famine. 
Perhaps their chief function is that of the professed peni- 
tent for the sins of the tribe. It will be recalled that 
among the ancient Hebrews the custom prevailed of send- 
ing a scape-goat into the wilderness upon which had been 
" laid " all the sins of the people. In Leviticus xvi, 21, 
22, we read : 

And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, 
and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and 



138 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head 
of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into 
the wilderness : 

And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land 
not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness. 

The highest duty performed by the cacique is analogous 
to that of the scape-goat. He himself, however, is the 
priest who takes upon his own head the sins, errors, mis- 
takes, evils of his people. With fastings and prayers, 
which often last for many days, he petitions " Those 
Above," and then, solitary and alone, he departs into the 
wilderness to be gone so long as he shall deem the sins 
of the people require. All this is done quietly and with- 
out display. No one knows formally when it is done. 
But, generally, a deep feeling of solemnity reigns in the 
pueblo during the fasting and prayer period of the 
cacique. 

There are a score, a hundred, things connected with 
pueblo life that one would enjoy describing, but in the 
narrow limits of even a lengthy chapter of this book it is 
not possible. The Indian affords many and varied points 
for study — his mythology, cosmogony, his folk-lore, his 
legends, his religion, his ceremonies, his clan-relationship, 
his language, his social customs, and the like. A score 
of volumes as large as this would not suffice to contain 
a simple presentation of them. The interested reader 
must familiarize himself with the literature of the sub- 
ject, a few of the most important and interesting books 
being listed in the Bibliography. 

But this chapter would be incomplete without the re- 
cital of some salient points in the history of Acoma, the 
account of its siege and storming by the Spaniards, its 
old church, the amusing story of its old painting of San 
Jose, with a description of one of its annual fiestas. 



Acoma, the City of the Cliifs 139 

When Coronado was detained at Zuni by the wound 
inflicted upon him by one of its militant citizens, he sent 
on Hernando de Alvarado with twenty men to explore 
the regions beyond. Thus Alvarado was the first white 
man to see Acoma, or Ah-co, in 1540, and he reported 
" it is one of the strongest places we have seen, because 
the city is on a very high rock, with a rough ascent that 
we repented having gone up to the place." 

Castenada gives a fuller description which is worth 
quoting complete. He says : 

These people were robbers, feared by the whole country round 
about. The village was very strong, because it was up on a rock 
out of reach, having steep sides in every direction, and so high that 
it was a very good musket that could throw a ball as high. There 
was only one entrance by a stairway built by hand, which began at 
the top of a slope which is around the foot of the rock. There was 
a broad stairway for about 200 steps, then a stretch of about 100 
narrower steps, and at the top they had to go up about three times 
as high as a man by means of holes in the rock, in which they put 
the points of their feet, holding on at the same time by their hands. 
There was a wall of large and small stones at the top, which they 
could roll down without showing themselves, so that no army could 
possibly be strong enough to capture the village. On the top they 
had room to sow and store a large amount of corn, and cisterns to 
collect snow and water. These people came down to the plain ready 
to fight, and would not listen to any arguments. They drew lines 
on the ground and determined to prevent our men from crossing 
these, but when they saw that they would have to fight they offered 
to make peace before any harm had been done. They went through 
their forms of making peace, which is to touch the horses and take 
their sweat and rub themselves with it, and to make crosses with the 
fingers of the hands. But to make the most secure peace they put 
their hands across each other, and they keep this peace inviolably. 
They made a present of a large number of (turkey-) cocks with 
very big wattles, much bread, tanned deerskins, pine (pinion) nuts, 
flour (corn meal), and corn. 

A little later Espejo, on that interesting trip described 
in another chapter, visited Acoma, which he thus de- 
scribes : 



140 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

We set out from this province (Emexes, now known as Jemez) 
toward the west, and after going three days, or about fifteen leagues, 
we found a pueblo called Acoma, where it appeared to us there 
must be more than six thousand souls. It is situated on a high 
rock more than fifty estados in height. In the very rock stairs are 
built by which they ascend and descend from the town, which is 
very strong. They have cisterns of water at the top and many pro- 
visions stored within the pueblo. Here they gave us many mantas, 
deerskins, and strips of buffalo-hide, tanned as they tan them in 
Flanders, and many provisions, consisting of maize and turkeys. 
These people have their fields two leagues from the pueblo on a 
river of medium size, whose water they intercept for irrigating pur- 
poses, as they water their fields with many partitions of the water 
near this river, in a marsh. Near the fields we found many bushes 
of Castilian roses. We also found Castilian onions, which grow 
in the country by themselves, without planting or cultivation. The 
mountains thereabouts apparently give promise of mines and other 
riches, but we did not go to see them as the people from there were 
many and warlike. The mountain people come to aid those of the 
settlements, who call the mountain people Querechos. They carry 
on trade with those of the settlements, taking to them salt, game, 
such as deer, rabbits, and hares, tanned deerskins, and other things, 
to trade for cotton mantas and other things with which the gov- 
ernment pays them. 

In other respects they are like those of the other provinces. In 
our honour they performed a very ceremonious mitote and dance, 
the people coming out in fine array. They performed many juggling 
feats, some of them very clever, with live snakes. Both of these 
things were well worth seeing. They gave us liberally of food and 
of all else which they had. And thus, after three days, we left this 
province. 

From this it would appear that the Snake Dance, which 
now is to be seen only at the Hopi pueblos, used to be 
performed at Acoma. Indeed, Walter Hough assures us 
that this ceremonial was wide-spread in former days 
among the New Mexico pueblos, and that even the 
Yokuts of California and the Mexico Indians had a simi- 
lar ceremony. 

Fifty-eight years after Alvarado's appearance, Juan 
de Ofiate, the real conqueror of Arizona and New Mexico, 



Acoma, the City of the Cliffs 141 

came to receive anew the submission of the people of this 
" City of the Cliffs." Treachery was in the hearts of the 
principales when they solemnly pledged themselves to be 
true and submissive vassals to the crown of Spain. They 
were diplomats of an early American era. To them, the 
end justified the means, and lies and treachery were legiti- 
mate weapons in dealing with hostile forces of such over- 
whelming power. 

Having subscribed to the oath, the Acomas invited 
Juan de Onate to climb the steep and perilous trails and 
visit the city whose submission he had received. After 
gazing upon its scenes of interest, he was taken to the 
head of a ladder, which led into the depths of one of the 
underground ceremonial chambers, termed kivas by the 
Indians, but named estufas, or stoves, by the Spaniards, 
on account of their stifling heat. Would he go below 
and see the ceremonial chamber? Just as he was about 
to descend, the darkness below sent a shaft of suspicion 
into his fearless heart, and he refused to go. Well for 
him was it that he let prudence control his acts at that 
time; for, in the darkness of the kiva a score or more of 
armed warriors were stealthily in waiting, watching for 
his steps upon the ladder, and, ere he had reached the 
bottom, a score of willing hands would have been dyed 
in his life blood, while armed men above would ruthlessly 
have murdered his little band of followers. 

This course of procedure had been urged by Zutucapan, 
the cacique, who saw in the presence of the white-faced 
strangers a deep menace to the welfare of his people. 

The fact that Ofiate escaped with his life added to the 
bitterness of Zutucapan. He urged upon his people the 
importance of waging war upon the Spaniards should 
they reappear. His hostility knew no bounds; the out- 
siders must meet nothing but a firm, determined, and 



142 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

continuous resistance. Such was his power and influ- 
ence over the Acomese that when, a few weeks later, 
Onate's maese de campo, Juan de Zaldivar, with thirty 
men, on their way to join their leader, stopped at Acoma, 
the Indians were ready to fall in with a plan that he for- 
mulated for the complete destruction of the strangers. 
Offering food and making every demonstration of friend- 
ship to the Spaniards, these foolishly allowed themselves 
to be separated into small groups on different parts of 
the mesa, ostensibly for the purpose of securing supplies 
the Indians generously had offered. Suddenly like a 
whirling cyclone all the warriors of the town fell upon 
the hapless Spaniards with flint knives, stone battle axes, 
heavy hammers, bows and arrows, and war clubs. Sur- 
prised, apart, unready, these adventurous warriors, who 
had braved the savages of thousands of miles of desert 
marches, one by one were slain. Here would be seen a 
desperate but hopeless conflict ; a mailed warrior, back to 
wall, blood streaming through his broken helmet, sur- 
rounded by yelling, screeching, howling, naked savages, 
all attacking at once and with a ferocity altogether irre- 
sistible. Juan was slain, others of his officers and men, 
one by one, licked the barren rock in the agonies of death, 
and, at last, five soldiers only remained. Fortunately, 
they were able to get together, and thus, side by side, en- 
couraging each other, they fought, striking and thrusting 
at every good opportunity into the dusky mass of surging 
savagery which determinedly forced itself upon them. 
Back, foot by foot, they were driven. Step by step they 
came nearer to the edge of those frightful cliffs. Yet 
death at the foot of a yawning precipice was preferable 
to captivity and torture at the hands of ruthless savages ; 
so, cheering each other with brave words, they flung 
themselves over the brink and commended their bodies 



Acoma, the City of the Cliif s 143 

and souls to Santiago, the patron saint of Spain. Cour- 
age and bravery were rewarded in all but one, who, fall- 
ing on the solid rocks, was dashed to pieces. The other 
four, fortunately, breaking their fall on the soft, ever- 
changing sand-heaps, escaped with their lives, and were 
soon in the soothing care of their comrades. The fear of 
their horses kept the camp below from the attacks they 
dreaded, and, just as soon the wounded soldiers were 
able to travel, the little, sad-hearted band hastily set 
forth, some for the main army of Juan de Ofiate, at San 
Gabriel de los Caballeros, and others to give warning to 
the scattered Spaniards at Zuni and elsewhere to gather 
together at San Gabriel for mutual protection. 

What, now, should Ofiate do ? To let the Acomese go 
unpunished was to loosen the hold of the Spaniards upon 
the whole country, yet he was under orders not to make 
war unless it was absolutely necessary. In his dilemma 
he turned to the priesthood and asked that the friars give 
him an opinion as to what justified war. This " opin- 
ion " is still preserved. It is an interesting piece of read- 
ing, a translation of which is found in Read's History of 
New Mexico (pp. 226-7-8). It is signed by Fray 
Alonzo Martinez, apostolic commissary, and was con- 
curred in by all the other missionaries of the province. 

Fortified with this document, which he deemed would 
shield him from the censure of his superiors, Ofiate sent 
Juan de Zaldivar's brother, Vicente, with seventy men 
to punish the Acomese. Think of the audacious courage 
of these men! In the heart of a hostile country, seventy 
men, ill-armed and poorly equipped, setting forth to wreak 
vengeance upon a city of stalwart Indians, who were so 
warlike that the surrounding country was in terror of 
them. Their city was a fortress, and it was built upon 
the summit of an almost inaccessible cliff, and according 



144 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

to reports, there were not less than three thousand war- 
riors to defend their homes against this little band of 
Spaniards. Only a few of the latter carried the rude 
flintlock guns of that time, the rest being armed solely 
with sword and lance. The artillery consisted of one 
small howitzer, carried on the back of a pack-mule. It 
seemed a "forlorn hope" that any of the Spaniards 
would ever return alive, yet they sternly and silently 
marched. Arrived at the foot of the cliff, Vicente sent 
his sergeant to demand the surrender of the inhabitants 
and that they come down to be punished for the murders 
they had committed. Howls and shrieks of derision and 
defiance answered the voice of the herald. The women 
added their voices of mockery to those of the men, and 
the medicine-men spat out their hatred as venom. Why 
need they fear? Upon that rocky height no foe could 
assail them; they were safe, secure, and anyhow, what 
could such a paltry little handful accomplish against 
them? 

Who of us is there who would not like to have been 
present, in spirit, at least, to have heard the conversation 
of the little band as they camped that night at the foot of 
the cliff? With sentries posted to prevent surprise, did 
they sleep much? Were they confident of their ultimate 
success, relying upon their superior weapons and skill, 
or were they fearful of the outcome? Whatever their 
thoughts, they acted as brave men, for, early in the morn- 
ing they began their attack at the north end of the mesa, 
firing their few flintlocks to the great astonishment and 
fear of the Indians. But fear did not last long. While 
some were wounded and others slain, the vast horde 
poured down a shower of rocks, arrows and other missiles 
upon the soldiers beneath. But they were not as crafty 
as they were defiant. During the darkness of the night 



Acoma, the City of the Cliffs 145 

twelve of the strongest of the Spanish arquebusiers hid 
themselves and the cannon under one of the overhanging 
cliffs, and under cover of the confusion caused by the 
early attack, stealthily made their way to the other end 
of the cliff, and then, weighted down though they were 
with their heavy armour and unwieldy guns, scaled the 
heights, dragging their cannon up, ledge by ledge, until 
it also, with themselves, was secure upon the top of the 
mesa upon which no houses were built. This was sepa- 
rated from the main mesa by a narrow chasm. Still un- 
discovered, the Spaniards loaded their howitzer with pow- 
der and a cobble-stone and fired at the houses beyond, 
thus signaling to their comrades of their safe location 
and also apprising the Acomese of the new danger that 
threatened them. 

That night, while some guarded the horses, others went 
and cut several logs which they succeeded in dragging, 
with incredible effort, to the top of the cliff, where their 
gun was, and the redoubtable twelve were hidden behind 
the rocks. 

Daybreak saw the two forces divided, some at the 
north end, while others joined the twelve with the gun. 
The tactics of the latter were soon apparent. Making a 
rush, several of them managed to throw one of the logs 
so that one end lodged on the further side of the chasm, 
forming a bridge for the invaders to cross. Now let 
Charles F. Lummis tell the story as gained from Villagra's 
History of New Mexico. This poet-soldier — for he 
wrote his History in verse — was himself the hero of the 
event to be related. His story, while pretty poor poetry, 
is one of the chief sources of our knowledge of this in- 
teresting epoch in New Mexican history, and further 
reference is made to it elsewhere. To return to the fight. 
Lummis says : 



146 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

Out dashed the Spaniards at their heels, and began balancing 
across that dizzy " bridge " in the face of a volley of stones and 
arrows. A very few had crossed, when one in his excitement caught 
the rope and pulled the log across after him. It was a fearful mo- 
ment. There were less than a dozen Spaniards thus left standing 
alone on the brink of Acoma, cut off from their companions by a 
gulf hundreds of feet deep, and surrounded by swarming savages. 
The Indians, sallying from their refuge, fell instantly upon them 
on every hand. As long as the Spanish soldier could keep the In- 
dians at a distance, even his clumsy firearms and inefficient arms 
gave an advantage ; but at such close quarters these very things were 
a fatal impediment by their weight and clumsiness. Now it seemed 
as if the previous Acoma massacres were to be repeated, and the 
cut-off Spaniards to be hacked to pieces ; but at this very crisis a 
deed of surpassing personal valour saved them and the cause of 
Spain in New Mexico. A slender, bright-faced young officer, a col- 
lege boy who was a special friend and favourite of Oiiate, sprang 
from the crowd of dismayed Spaniards on the farther bank, who 
dared not fire into that indiscriminate jostle of friend and foe, and 
came running like a deer toward the chasm. As he reached its 
brink his lithe body gathered itself, sprang into the air like a bird, 
and cleared the gulf ! Seizing the log, he thrust it back with des- 
perate strength until his companions could grasp it from the farther 
brink; and over the restored bridge the Spanish soldiers poured to 
retrieve the day. 

Then began one of the most fearful hand-to-hand struggles in all 
American history. Outnumbered nearly ten to one, lost in a howling 
mob of savages who fought with the frenzy of despair, gashed with 
raw-edged knives, dazed with crushing clubs, pierced with bristling 
arrows, spent and faint and bleeding, Zaldivar and his mere handful 
fought their way inch by inch, step by step, clubbing their heavy 
guns, hewing with their short swords, parrying deadly blows, pulling 
the barbed arrows from their quivering flesh. On, on, on they 
pressed, shouting the gallant war-cry of Santiago, driving the stub- 
born foe before them by still more stubborn valour, until at last 
the Indians, fully convinced that these were no human foes, fled to 
the refuge of their fort-like houses, and there was room for the 
reeling Spaniards to draw breath. Then thrice again the summons 
to surrender was duly read before the strange tenements, each 
near a thousand feet long, and looking like a flight of gigantic 
steps carved from one rock. Zaldivar even now wished to spare 
unnecessary bloodshed, and demanded only that the assassins of his 
brother and countrymen should be given up for punishment. All 
others who should surrender and become subjects of "Our Lord 



Acoma, the City of the Cliffs 147 

the King" should be well treated. But the dogged Indians, like 
wounded wolves in their den, stuck in their barricaded houses, and 
refused all terms of peace. 

The rock was captured, but the town remained. A pueblo is a 
fortress in itself ; and now Zaldivar had to storm Acoma house by 
house, room by room. The little pedrero was dragged in front of 
the first row of houses, and soon began to deliver its slow fire. 
As the adobe walls crumbled under the steady battering of the 
stone cannon-balls, they only formed great barricades of clay, 
which even our modern artillery would not pierce ; and each had to 
be carried separately at the point of the sword. Some of the 
fallen houses caught fire from their own fogones; and soon a 
stifling smoke hung over the town, from which issued the shrieks 
of women and babes and the defiant yells of the warriors. The 
humane Zaldivar made every effort to save the women and children, 
at great risk of self ; but numbers perished beneath the falling walls 
of .neir own houses. 

This fearful storming lasted until noon of January 24. Now 
and then bands of warriors made sorties, and tried to cut their way 
through the Spanish line. Many sprang in desperation over the 
cliff, and were dashed to pieces at its foot; and two Indians who 
made that incredible leap survived it as miraculously as had the 
four Spaniards in the earlier massacre, and made their escape. 

At last, at noon of the third day, the old men came forth to sue 
for mercy, which was at once granted. The moment they sur- 
rendered, their rebellion was forgotten and their treachery forgiven. 
There was no need for further punishment. 

We should certainly think not if Villagra's statements 
are to be believed. Here is a translation of his story of 
the capitulation of the Acomese, as given in Read's His- 
tory : 

Returning to the frightful conflagration 

Whose blaze, vibrating savagely, forth belched 

Its lightning bolts with sparks and cinder mixed, 

Enveloping the lofty houses in 

Their awe-inspiring and consuming flames. 

See here, my Lord, high roofs, and walls and lofts, 

And dwellings that break in a thousand portions 

Open, and crumbling swift roll on the ground 

In sudden crash, and, like a living fire 

Deep in the scorched earth do bury all 



148 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

The wretched dullness, leaving not a trace 

Of anything that's not devoured, consumed. 

See, too, my Lord, the many corpses that 

In their despair fall from the summit of 

The w^all, and torn by rocks lie on the earth 

Outstretched in the minutest fragments of 

Flesh and bone. The savages, both men 

And women, who roast with their little ones, 

Most piteously lament their misery 

And fate. The sergeant to compassion moved 

Before that harvest woeful, grim of death, 

As when a skilful pilot's wont to exert 

Himself amid the storm and tempest of 

The Ocean, leaping to and fro, and for 

The common safety strives, commanding crew 

And passengers with anxious shouts ; and then 

All join and rush in fervid haste to aid 

Themselves and save the slender vessel from 

The wrath of angry wave and raging wind 

Which toss it 'mid a thousand watery mountains, 

So he (the sergeant) urging Chumpo and 

Other barbarians who wished for peace, 

Assures and promises upon his faith 

As honoured knight, that he will spare the lives 

Of all if they but do abstain from that 

Most dreadful butchery and cruel strife 

Which they — unhappy wretches — called upon 

Themselves. No sooner had the poor old man's 

Ears caught the words of the chivalrous youth 

Than, clamouring in loud wild voices with 

The few barbarians attending him. 

He did persuade them and exhort by signs 

And earnest pleadings of a father, to 

Desist and not to sacrifice themselves 

To a much horrid death; for he had pledged 

His knighted word to spare their lives and give 

Them noble treatment — not in doubtful terms. 

But certainly, without suspicion and 

Without disguise, and free from vile intent. 

As after lighting's shock has passed, we see 

Our neighbours in suspense, with death's pale hue 

Upon their cheeks, their throbbing hearts within 

Their breasts in palpitation, they came out 

Mistrustful still, to see and ascertain 



Acoma, the City of the Cliffs 149 

The wreck caused by the fight already passed: 

In similar manner many others in 

Dull, timorous solemn pace approached 

Quite careful not to step upon the bloody 

Corpses of friends, the loyal shield of those 

Grim walls that with their blood were bathed and dyed. 

So, too, sad, trembling, and afflicted, hemmed 

In on both sides they nearer came and nearer 

Caressing the Castilian band and all 

Their kin with paUid features, yet with signs 

Of cordial pleasure beaming on their faces. 

On seeing them reduced, and now withdrawn 

From that fierce, mortal struggle which they had 

Invited, they appeared as do the fields 

Of wheat that nod and bend before 

The furious blowing of the mighty winds, 

Whose heavy gusts rush fiercely through their stalks 

And crush them in the ground : Ev'n so 

Six hundred warriors, conquered and disarmed. 

Surrendered, and within the town, with their 

Wives and their children prostrate, gave their arms 

And altogether placed themselves without 

Condition at the hands and mercy of 

The sergeant in most quiet stillness, moved 

By the good Chumpo, who had promised all 

Their lives, and there and then gave it to them. 

And I doubt that we could without his help 

Have taken that numancia which, though now 

Lost and unhappy, was determined to 

Rather remain deserted and unpeopled 

Than ever to surrender to that small force. 

Thus the Acomese were brought into subjection. 
Their pueblo was almost entirely destroyed by fire and 
had to be rebuilt, eighty of their girls were marched away 
to Santa Fe, and Lummis says they were " sent to be 
educated by the nuns in Old Mexico." 

There seems to be some question as to the population 
of Acoma at this time. Ofiate estimated it at three thou- 
sand and as only six hundred were said to survive the 
siege, twenty-four hundred must have been slain in the 



150 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

conflict. This unquestionably was an exaggeration, for 
Benavides, thirty years later, figures out the population 
at two thousand. Of this latter figure Bandelier states 
it is twice as many as the rock will hold, hence we may 
cut the figures of Onate in half, and even then the slaugh- 
ter is enough to satisfy the most bloody of minds. 

And all for what? Simply because a primitive people 
had slain the minions of a foreign prince who had dared 
to come and assert sovereignty over the land, the homes, 
the hunting-fields they had occupied for centuries. In- 
stead of our siding with those who punished them so 
cruelly, our sympathy the rather should go out to them, 
true patriots as they were, shedding their blood so freely 
in defense of their homes and native land. 

There is one incident said to have occurred during this 
fierce conflict, that must not be overlooked. Read tells 
of it thus: 

The act of surrendering being over, the Indians inquired after 
that vahant rider with the gray beard, who, on a brisk, white steed 
and accompanied by a handsome queen, was helping the Spaniards. 
The Spaniards considered that a miracle had been performed, saying 
that the rider the Indians saw must have been Santiago (St. James), 
and the queen, the Virgin, an apparition which they did not see. 

The effect of the victory of the Spaniards at Acoma 
was felt throughout the whole of the pueblo region. 
With Acoma the inaccessible, defended by the bravest of 
the brave, brought to defeat, what hope was there for the 
others? Better meet the evil condition, and submit to 
the yoke of the invader. This, undoubtedly, was the 
reasoning followed, and for a time New Mexico had 
peace. 

Then, strange to say, fierce, sullen, recalcitrant Acoma 
was stormed again, but this time not by warriors with 
guns and swords, but by a cheerful, sunny Franciscan, 



Acoma, the City of the Cliifs 151 

Fray Juan Ramirez, who walked alone to Acoma to un- 
dertake the task of christianizing its people. He was not 
greeted with kindness. Indeed, the Acomese tell a story- 
handed down to them that the good father was thrown 
off the cliff, and that by the miraculous intervention of 
the saints he worshiped, his life was saved. Anyhow he 
succeeded in gaining the right to stay with them and in 
a short time won their friendship. For twenty years he 
remained, teaching them the ways of the new religion, 
and so powerfully did he influence them, they built a 
mission church under his direction. This, says Hodge, 
" was dedicated to San Esteban (St. Stephen) and stood 
just to the north of the present remarkable edifice, but 
no trace of it now remains if we bar some carved beams 
which form part of one of the houses of the old north 
tier." 

But this peaceful condition was not to last for long. 
The Acomese hated the Spaniards as a whole and that 
their desire for vengeance was but smoldering is evident 
by the fact that they joined in the rebellion of 1680 and 
slew their missionary. Fray Lucas Maldonado. Many 
a time as I have strolled about the mesa top, looking 
down the steep cliffs, and into the deeply eroded clefts 
that seam the walls, my mind has turned to this period of 
rebellion. I have imagined the good father, suddenly 
awakened out of his sleep, dragged out of his bed and 
room into the open air, under a sky so pure and blue that 
it seemed as if no evil could exist under its pellucid seren- 
ity, and then, horror of horrors, a blow here, a thrust 
there and the life blood of the good man trickled in 
ruddy streaks over the very pavement, perhaps, on which 
I now walked. And where and how was he buried? 
Did they cast his still warm body off the cliff? Did the 
coyotes rend the flesh before some compassionate soul 



152 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

stole away from the rest and scooped a hole in the sand, 
and reverently placed the desecrated and broken body 
into its last earthly tenement? Desecrated, broken, de- 
filed, possibly; yet, if one tear fell upon that rigid face, 
one glimpse of love, one throb of sympathy, it was a 
sanctified grave. 

Oh, blood of the martyrs, shed the world over for 
ideas, how much of it has been spilled needlessly, aim- 
lessly, almost foolishly, because men have not known 
enough to be loving and kind to their brother men of 
different races and civilizations throughout the earth? 
I believe firmly that had our Indians of the Southwest 
been treated by the Spanish officials, soldiers, and colo- 
nists with proper decency, there would have been little 
rebellion and few or no murders. 

And yet the thoughts intrude : Has a conquering race 
ever shown brotherly kindness to the race it has con- 
quered? Has any people a right to its own home, its 
own mode of life, its own religion, without the inter- 
ference of outsiders? Until the great European war 
drew the American people into its seething whirlpool, 
there had never been found a statesman with vision 
enough, purity of heart sufficient, and moral courage as- 
sertive enough to dare to defend the rights of all people 
to determine the course of their own lives. 

Lincoln came nearer to doing it than had any one prior 
to his time. It was left for Woodrow Wilson, however, 
when announcing the entry of the United States into the 
war on the side of the Allies, boldly to enunciate the prin- 
ciple that, in future, no large or powerful nation should 
be allowed to subjugate a smaller or weaker one. 

The Spaniards held to no such frivolous idea. Might 
meant right, and, anyhow, what rights, possibly, could a 
lot of ignorant savages have? It was against this arrg- 



Acoma, the City of the Cliffs 153 

gant spirit that the Acomese and other Indians of New 
Mexico arose. 

While the first church of Acoma was dedicated to San 
Esteban (St. Stephen), the name of the patron saint was 
changed about this time to San Pedro, and the bell in the 
northeastern tower bears the inscription, " San Pedro, 
17 lo." But the original name was afterwards restored, 
and a quaint wooden figure of St. Stephen has ever since 
adorned the altar, from which it is taken and heads the 
great procession on the fiesta day of the Acomese, St. 
Stephen's, September 2. 

It is interesting here to note that the San Esteban, of 
Acoma, is not Stephen the Martyr, whose apology and 
death are recorded in Acts vi and vii. The Acoma St, 
Stephen was a king of Hungary, named after Stephen 
the Martyr, but canonized by Pope Benedict IX, because 
of his zeal in converting the Magyars, who really were 
Tartars from the Caspian Sea region, and had invaded 
and conquered Hungary — from paganism to Christi- 
anity. There was little of sentiment in his methods. He 
overthrew all the old altars and ruthlessly destroyed all 
the old heroic and mythologic poems, and put to death 
by drowning every Magyar found worshiping under the 
sacred oaks, by fountains, or before lichened rocks, as 
their ancient method required. 

Of the mission church of San Esteban much might be 
written. In the rebellion of 1680 the first church was 
destroyed — razed to the very rock upon which it stood. 
All the furniture, vestments and paraphernalia were 
burned, and with them the first record of the mission's 
history. How priceless would they be to us to-day! 

When de Vargas came on his first triumphal march the 
Acomese could scarce believe they were to be pardoned 
so easily for their misdoings. In 1696, they rebelled 



154 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

again, keeping the governor at bay when he came to pun- 
ish them, although he succeeded in capturing five of their 
number, four of whom were shot. The sternly repres- 
sive measures of the governor soon brought the other 
pueblos to subjection and the Acomese, seeing the heavy 
hand of punishment fall upon their brothers, decided that 
it would be wise to cease their armed opposition, hence 
they sued for peace, and, in due time, a new friar was 
sent to them. Then they built the existent remarkable 
church, with its massive walls, double bell towers, and 
outbuildings that ever since has been the delight of all 
who have seen it. 

Its walls are sixty feet high and ten feet thick, and 
the timbers upon which the roof rests are fourteen inches 
square and forty feet long. The Indians say they were 
cut on Black Mesa, over twenty miles away, and carried 
or dragged by sheer human muscle to their present loca- 
tion. The building, with its house for the padres and 
rooms for the neophytes, etc., says Lummis, " covers 
more ground than any modern cathedral in the United 
States." It was the building that furnished the chief 
motif for the unique and fascinating New Mexican 
building at the San Diego Exposition of 191 5-6. And 
while features of other mission structures have been in- 
troduced, it was the main " inspiration " of the splendid 
" Cathedral of the Desert," the fine Art Museum, that 
to-day is the modern glory of the City of Santa Fe. 

While undoubtedly the pieces of stone used in its con- 
struction were picked up on the mesa top, it is equally 
certain that every pound of adobe, of which perhaps more 
was used than of stone, was carried up from the valley 
beneath. Up the precipitous stone ladders in the clefts 
of the cliff, patient women bore blankets full of the heavy 
earth, and when the building of the church was done they 



Acoma, the City of the Cliffs 155 

carried up as much more to fill up the great " box " that 
had been made with stone walls, and that was to act as a 
Campo Santo for those Acomese who afterwards " died 
in the Lord." No wonder the toe-holes of the rocky 
wall trails are worn down several inches by the constant 
imprint of the moccasined feet. 

Some ten or a dozen years ago the roof leaked and 
the towers were so rounded by the weather that something 
had to be done. There was no floor in the church, and 
as the rain came through by the bucketful during a storm, 
the sacristan hit upon the plan of cutting a small drainage 
trench down the center of the church. Later a board 
floor was put in, the decaying timbers of the roof were 
replaced with new ones, a new covering of earth put over 
them, and the towers built up and squared. This latter 
change may have been necessary from the preservation 
standpoint, but it certainly has taken away some of the 
peculiar charm of the old, weather-rounded towers. 

Here upon the walls, by the altar, are two or three 
paintings. Ordinarily one might pass them by, but when 
he is informed that one of them, that of San Jose (St. 
Joseph ) is, perhaps, the same painting that was presented 
to the church by Charles II of Spain, and that it certainly 
and positively is a picture that not only almost provoked 
a civil war but was the object of a sensational suit in the 
courts of New Mexico, upon which decisions were ren- 
dered by the superior and supreme judges of the Terri- 
tory, he will turn and take more than a cursory glance 
at it. Whether it is an " old master " or not I do not 
know — nor does any one else. It is so dim and faded 
and weather-worn that no one, however expert, can 
decide. 

It is well known how objects as strange as they are 
various will, for some reason or none, become the sub- 



156 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

ject of an aboriginal people's reverence, superstition, or 
regard. Even while the Acomese hated the Spanish mis- 
sionaries they gradually began to attach importance to 
this picture. This can well be understood when we recall 
how the old padres reverenced the husband of the Virgin 
Mother, and doubtless incited the Acomese to pray to 
him for all good and to avert from them all evil. Pos- 
sibly the serene quiet face of the " Father of God," gaz- 
ing steadily, persistently, never-changing, out of his can- 
vas upon them affected their imagination. Slowly impor- 
tance changed to regard, and regard to reverence, and — 
when and where does superstition come in? and what 
is superstition anyhow ? Certain it is that " the venera- 
tion for the painting grew stronger and more clear, while 
oil and canvas were growing dim and moldy." While 
they prayed and followed the new way of the padre, 
things seemed to go well with them and they prospered 
in all things, which he, of course, constantly and faith- 
fully attributed to the good influences of the saint. , 

Perhaps the Navaho and the Apache were less warlike 
for a generation or so ; perhaps crops were better than 
they had been ; perhaps flocks and herds increased ; per- 
haps a pestilence that had devastated Zuni or the far- 
away peoples of the province of Tusayan had not reached 
them. Anyhow, as generation after generation passed 
away, the veneration for the picture grew, until in the 
minds of young and old alike it was recognized as " good 
medicine." The faith people have in signs and symbols, 
in objects and methods of worship, is both touching and 
pathetic and never more so than in the perfect faith of 
the people of Acoma in their picture of San Jose. 

In the meantime the leaven of their faith was reaching 
the people of Laguna, and the elements and circum- 
stances were helping. Whatever one family asserts to 



Acoma, the City of the Cliffs 157 

another is the secret of the former's good luck or for- 
tune, is bound to become an object of interest to those 
who do not enjoy that luck. That the Acomese were en- 
joying good luck was apparent to everybody, and that the 
Lagunas were not was equally apparent. The flocks and 
herds at Laguna did not increase : their crops were not 
good ; their irrigating ditches broke, and the water-sup- 
ply ran short ; a terrible epidemic of small-pox left sev- 
eral houses childless and took away quite a number of 
husbands, fathers and lovers ; and the fierce Navahos 
came and robbed them of sheep and their meager field 
store. 

What was the reason ? 

The wise Gray-gowns (the Franciscan missionaries) 
long ago had told the people of Laguna that San Jose 
would bring them good fortune (for their Mission was 
dedicated to San Jose), but they had no picture and they 
had not paid much heed to the Gray-gowns anyhow. But 
here were the Acomese, who were their Indian kinsfolk: 
they were not likely to give San Jose credit for anything 
that did not absolutely belong to him. It must be San 
Jose! 

As soon as this conclusion was reached it was natural 
for them to long for a San Jose to bring them good for- 
tune. 

A solemn conclave of the principales and officers of 
Laguna was called, and it was finally decided that they 
should go, in all ceremony, and humbly ask their brothers 
at Acoma to lend them their source of good fortune. A 
specially sacred time was coming, according to the Gray- 
gowns' teaching, and if they obeyed and paid due atten- 
tion to San Jose the good they needed would assuredly 
come to them. 

They presented their petition. Their Acoma brothers 



158 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

duly considered it and finally consented to loan San Jose, 
on the explicit pledge that at the end of a month he should 
be returned. 

How happy the Lagunas were as they bore the magic 
picture of the sainted " Father of Jesus " down the steep 
trail and over the sandy miles to their own rudely deco- 
rated church. Two of them carried it, and as they did 
so were guarded more carefully than they ever guarded 
themselves or their children. The whole town came out 
to meet them. A procession of joyous, happy, hopeful 
men, women and children followed the carriers and 
watched breathlessly until the picture was duly hung up 
in the little church. 

Then day by day everybody paid his, her, devotions to 
the pictured saint. Everybody was " good." During 
" Holy week " the canvas was brought out and carried 
through the pueblo at the head of the procession and all 
paid San Jose due honour and reverence. 

Now, strange to say, — or is it not strange, — the 
" luck " of the Lagunas changed from that day. Things 
began to boom that had hitherto languished. Sick chil- 
dren became well ; the flocks lost their diseases ; lean, 
gaunt cattle and sheep began to gain flesh ; and crops no 
longer looked as if they would not repay the labour of 
planting. 

These facts, instead of filling the hearts of the La- 
gunas with thankfulness, seemed to have had the oppo- 
site effect. Or was it that they were afraid their good 
fortune would cease if the magical picture were returned? 
When the month was up the Acomese waited for the re- 
turn of San Jose and he did not come. With a trifle of 
anxiety they sent messengers to enquire the reason, and 
their astonishment, indignation and rage knew no bounds 
when these returned with the reply that the Lagunas 



Acoma, the City of the Cliffs 15^ 

refused to give up the picture unless it were taken by 
force. The young men were for going down and seizing 
it, but some of the wiser, older, calmer heads suggested 
that the priest first of all be consulted. He was Fray 
Mariano de Jesus Lopez, a Franciscan, and a worthy suc- 
cessor to the men who had founded the missions, and he 
called upon the prmcipales of both Laguna and Acoma to 
appear before him and explain the cause of the difficulty, 
bringing the picture with them. 

When all were assembled, prayers were offered, calling 
upon God to see that justice was done, and mass was 
then held, so that all might enter into the discussion with 
due solemnity. It was finally decided that they should 
draw lots for the picture — it was the old biblical way — 
and God, not chance, would guide the result. Twelve 
ballots were prepared, eleven blank and one marked with 
a rude sketch of the saint. Two Httle girls were ap- 
pointed to draw the ballots from an olla into which they 
were placed and shaken up. On the fifth ballot the 
Acoma girl drew out the pictured ballot, and " God has 
decided in favour of Acoma," declared Fray Mariano. 

Never was the village happier than was Acoma that 
night when San Jose was restored to his former place on 
the wall of the church. Everybody hugged everybody 
else, and rejoicing filled each heart. But the Lagunas 
scowlingly climbed down the rocky trails as though they 
were on their way home. 

In the morning some of the more devout Acomese went 
to the church a little earlier than usual, but, as they ap- 
proached the altar in the dim morning light, they speedily 
noticed that something was wrong. The first one who 
saw, scarcely dared breathe it to the next, and when they 
did speak it was in an awed whisper : " Why, He has 
gone ! " Hurriedly the news was given to the governor 



160 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

and the principales and the padre and not one of them 
could scarce believe his ears. At last a careful examina- 
tion was made and then tell-tale tracks told the story. 
The Lagunas stealthily had come up the steep stone stair- 
case in the dead of the night, and knowing the unsus- 
picious character of the Acomese, had entered the church, 
taken down the picture and triumphantly, though silently, 
borne it back to Laguna. 

Others tell the story a little differently. They claim 
that an armed band of Lagunas, having pledged them- 
selves not to go home without the picture, stealthily re- 
turned, seized the sacristan while he was in bed, gagged 
him, and taking the church key from him, went to the 
sacred building and possessed themselves of the picture. 

Anyhow it was gone, and now the great question was, 
" What shall we do ? " War loomed in sight ! The theft 
was an open insult to the whole of the people, and doubt- 
less had not Fray Lopez been there blood would have 
been shed and many lives lost ere the dispute was set- 
tled. He, however, had friends at San Mateo to whom 
he could appeal for wisdom. These in turn knew law- 
yers at Santa Fe. They would place the matter before 
the courts — the American way of quieting disputes 
which seemed too difficult for ordinary people to settle. 

Hence the chancery suit in the District Court of the 
Second Judicial District of New Mexico, asking that a 
receiver be appointed for the picture of San Jose, and 
that the ownership be judicially declared. The Lagunas 
employed an American lawyer who made the usual formal 
reply, but setting forth things that startled the Acomas. 
They claimed that the picture originally belonged to them, 
that by tradition it was surely theirs, that the " drawing 
of lots " was not agreed to by them, and that they had 
simply seized and taken home their own property. 



Acoma, the City of the Cliffs 161 

The Hon. Kirby Benedict, sitting as chancellor, had 
the honour of settling this remarkable case. He heard 
the evidence and decided in favour of Acoma. Laguna 
appealed to the Supreme Court, which also made a thor- 
ough, and for it, rather extra judicial investigation, and 
then, in 1857, affirmed the original decision. Part of 
the Supreme Court's decision reads as follows: 

The history of this painting, its obscure origin, its age, and 
the fierce contest which these two Indian pueblos have carried on, 
bespeak the inappreciable value which is placed upon it. The in- 
trinsic value of the oil, paint, and cloth of which San Jose is rep- 
resented to the senses, it has been admitted in argument, probably 
would not exceed twenty-five cents ; but this seemingly worthless 
painting has well-nigh cost these two pueblos a bloody and cruel 
struggle, and had it not been for weakness on the part of one of 
the pueblos, its history might have been written in blood. 

As soon as the news of the decision reached Acoma a 
band of happy and eager men started to Laguna for the 
picture. To their amazement, when about half way, they 
found San Jose, with his face turned homeward, and to 
this day the simple-hearted Acomese, provided they can 
be induced to tell you the foregoing story, will assure 
you that the saint, knowing of the decision by the Su- 
preme Court, had started on his way home, but, growing 
weary, had waited by the tree to rest himself, when found 
by his happy people going to fetch him home. 

This is the picture that, tattered and faded, now stands 
over the altar, one of the most treasured of all the pos- 
sessions of the simple people who worship there. 

From this story it might be implied that the Acomese 
are devout Catholics, and I doubt not there be those who 
will assert that they are. Yet as one watches many of 
their ceremonies and familiarizes himself with their de- 
tails, he finds that, even in their celebration of their Saint's 
days, they still retain many of their original aboriginal 



162 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

and heathen customs. Indeed it appears to me it would 
be far more exact to say that the Acomese have allowed 
Catholic ceremonial to be grafted upon their ancient cus- 
toms, so that, at this day, they are a peculiar combination. 

In illustration of this let me give a fairly detailed ac- 
count of one Saint's day fiesta, of which I have seen 
many, both at Acoma and at other New Mexican pueblos. 

The fiesta of the Indian is a peculiar mixture. The 
word, of course, is Spanish, and means a festival. Yet 
it must not be assumed, therefore, that the Indians knew 
nothing of festivals before the coming of the Spaniards. 
They were full of fiestas — only to them they were re- 
ligious ceremonials, with an occasional dash of clownish 
fun. In their handling of aboriginal peoples the Catholic 
church learned a wonderful amount of worldly wisdom. 
They soon discovered that to attempt to prohibit the In- 
dian ceremonials was to bring down on them the fiercest 
wrath of the medicine men. So they worked in two 
ways. One was to introduce new ceremonies, dramatic 
plays, etc., which immediately engaged the interest of the 
Indians, for any kind of a " show " attracts them as it 
does children. The other was to take the heathen cere- 
monial, even though to the Indian it implied Sun-worship, 
prayers and invocations to a hundred and one of their 
Katchinas — or lesser divinities — and graft upon it a 
Christian significance. In some cases it was remodeled 
— as Belasco would remodel a play — new parts being 
introduced, old ones changed, or ostensibly given a new 
significance. 

September the second is the day of St. Stephen, 
Acoma's patron saint. The priest in charge of the " par- 
ish " at that time of which I write was the Reverend 
George Juillard, a Frenchman of high culture and great 
ability. He spoke several modern languages fluently and 



Acoma, the City of the CUffs 163 

was more familiar with the rnodern poets of England, ap- 
preciatively quoting them, than most well-read Ameri- 
cans. He had arranged to be present at Acoma on this 
great feast day, and cordially had invited me to go with 
him. We drove out from Laguna, enjoying the scenery 
on the way, and arriving at the foot of the mesa in the 
early afternoon. Our approach evidently had been 
heralded, for, waiting for us at the foot of the trail was 
a group of men, youths and children, ready and anxious 
to take our bedding, food supplies, camera outfit and our 
personal belongings to the house apportioned to us for our 
visit. 

The following morning we were to witness a dramatic 
representation of the coming of St. James to Spain. 
Here was an out-door drama, taught to the Acomese by 
some long-dead Spanish friar, handed down to this day, 
and now to be performed in our honour. 

Long before we had breakfast we could feel that some- 
thing exciting was in the air. The men were decked in 
their finest costumes, and the women were still arraying 
themselves in their most gaudy apparel. Bands of horses 
had been clattering up and down the naturally stone- 
paved streets for hours and the noise had awakened us 
in the early morning. Soon after breakfast we were all 
drawn, as by a magnet, to one spot on the mesa top. It 
was near the head of the trail which had been built up 
by the drifting sands on the northeast face of the cliff. 
Every eye that knew what to expect was gazing off in 
the far-away distance where pinions and junipers hid the 
sandy soil. Soon two young men on fiery broncos came 
dashing up as if they were messengers of importance. 
Riding as far as it was possible up the steep trail, and 
greeted on every hand by buzzing tongues, they came to 
the governor and principales who awaited them in a dig- 



164 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

nified group near the head of the trail. There they an- 
nounced the fact that Saint James was on his way to 
Acoma and would soon arrive. Though no public an- 
nouncement of what the messengers had said was made, 
everybody seemed to understand and every gaze became 
more fixed and insistent than before. Soon the quaintest 
and queerest little figure that was ever seen appeared 
among the trees on the plain, surrounded by a hundred 
horsemen, not riding sedately and soberly, but all in a 
hurry of bustle and excitement. Single horsemen and 
groups darted off, like the wind, in every direction on 
apparently aimless errands and came back with equally 
aimless speed. They were messengers sent out by the 
Saint to inform the people along the way of his arrival. 
For that comical little figure, which, at first, we could 
make nothing of, at last came near enough for us clearly 
to see what it was. It was a man riding some kind of 
a figure draped in white with a small horse's head, neck, 
mane, back, and tail attached to him, which he made to 
prance and cavort around in a series of fantastic move- 
ments that were as interesting as the movements of the 
great Chinese dragon of San Francisco. This was Santi- 
ago — St. James — himself. 

When the foot of the sand trail was reached, the 
couriers of Saint James dismounted from their horses, 
which they left there in charge of one of their number, 
and then, solemnly and with reverence, formed as a body- 
guard around the peculiar figure which continued his 
prancings and curvetings, and accompanied him up the 
trail to the mesa top. Here he was received with the 
greatest respect and marks of veneration by the governor 
and the other town officials, and with deep and earnest, 
but nevertheless hearty cordiality, by the people. After 
a few minutes spent in exchange of salutations, the whole 



Acoma, the City of the Cliffs 165 

party wended its way toward the church. Here mass 
was said by Father Juillard, followed by an address in 
which he told the story of St. James's coming to Spain, 
the great blessing it had been to that country, and how, 
through the priests, these same blessings were to be be- 
stowed upon the Acomese. 

While the morning proceedings had been going on a 
small Kisi, or bower, had been built of poles covered with 
Cottonwood, pinion, quaken aspen, and juniper branches, 
on the main street. We were soon to see what this was 
for. 

The service ended, a procession was formed. First 
came the mayor-domo, or director of proceedings, — a 
stalwart Mexican dressed in cowboy fashion, with wide- 
spreading sombrero on his head and jingling spurs on his 
heels, and with a heavy blacksnake whip in his hands. 
He was followed by St. James, riding his peculiar little 
sham horse, then another Mexican, dressed almost like 
the other, carrying an accordeon, which he wielded with 
considerable earnestness and vigour. Next came an In- 
dian bearing the processional cross, then the governor 
and his officers, followed by the priest in his robes of 
office. Behind him, seated in a cabinet evidently made 
for the purpose and born aloft over the heads of the 
bearers, was the wooden figure of Saint Stephen taken 
down from its place on the altar. Over the figure of 
the saint a cloth canopy was held, the four corners of 
which were supported by staffs in the hands of four In- 
dian men. Then came the band of singers and the whole 
of the population, men, women and children. This pro- 
cession solemnly wended its way up and down every 
street of the pueblo. 

In order to obtain different photographs of the, pro- 
cession I hurried ahead and caught it at several points. 



166 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

We were all much amused; not only by the antics of 
the " Saint " and his " hobby-horse," but more particu- 
larly by the Mexican musician who, every now and again, 
struck up some wildly hilarious or popular air or dance- 
tune which shortly before had been ground out from 
every hand-organ and mechanical-piano on the streets of 
our eastern cities. To us the effect seemed funny and 
incongruous in the highest, but the Mexicans and Indians 
heard in it nothing strange or peculiar and received the 
suggestive strains of the dance-tune with as much solemn- 
ity as if it had been the staidest hymn-tune ever written. 

As soon as the procession reached the kisi the figure of 
St. Stephen solemnly was put in position at the head of an 
extemporized altar, while the governor and principales 
sat on benches on each side of the bower, with two armed 
sentinels outside. These formed the guard of honour for 
the sacred figure and also gave official sanction and ap- 
proval to the fiesta. 

During the rest of the morning all the devout members 
of the tribe, men and women, came to pray at the little 
shrine, each one bringing some gift-offering of bread, 
baked-meat, clothing, pottery, corn, melons, jewelry, or 
other article, all of which were deposited around the foot 
of the altar and left there. In the meantime Santiago 
must have retired to refresh himself. Anyhow, he dis- 
appeared for a time, after which he returned at intervals 
always accompanied by the Mexican mayor-dotiio with 
the heavy rawhide whip. 

Soon after the noon hour the dances began, and it re- 
quired no explanation to see that these were a remnant 
of the old heathen part of the ceremonies upon which the 
civilized and Christian part had been grafted. The head- 
dresses of the women clearly symbolized the old time 
Acoma worship of the sun. They also showed other 



Acoma, the City of the CUffs 167 

symbols as of the clouds, falling rain, growing corn, etc. 
Some of the songs that accompanied the dances were an- 
cient songs of thanksgiving to Those Above for all the 
good things the pueblo had received throughout the year, 
and their dances were clearly prayers for rain. 

The men wore a kilt, or apron, reaching from the loin 
to their knees, embroidered and fringed garters and 
moccasins. Dependent from the loins at the back was 
the skin of the silver gray fox, and around both arms 
above the elbow were tied twigs of juniper or pine. In 
the left hand more twigs were held, while in the right 
was the whitewashed gourd-rattle used in all ceremonial 
dances. Around each forehead was the inevitable banda 
or handkerchief, and nearly all wore a shell and turquoise 
necklace. Their bodies and legs were nude, painted with 
oxide of iron. The women, on the other hand, were be- 
decked with all the gorgeous finery they could muster. 
Jotsitz (robe), girdle, moccasins, leggings, necklaces, etc., 
that were too good for common use, or were especially 
made for this great occasion, were donned, and in addi- 
tion, the peculiar symbolic head-dress made of board or 
raw-hide which I have already described. To and fro 
they danced, the men two together, giving the singular 
hippety-hop movement peculiar to Indian dances, and 
shaking their rattles, the women, likewise in twos, fol- 
lowing in alternate order, gently waving bunches of wild 
flowers, and shuffling forward with their feet as the men 
hopped. On the other side of the street stood the tombes 
— drums — and the chorus, the leader occasionally mak- 
ing gestures, all of which were imitated by the singers, 
expressive of their thankfulness to " Those Above." 

The dancing was done in relays, as it is no easy thing 
to keep up the strenuous and vigorous stepping of the 
Indian dances in the broiling hot sun for long at a time. 



168 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

Only those who have tried the pecuHar step of these 
dances know what hard work it is and how difficult. The 
time is kept by a statuesque old man whose wrinkled face 
shows that he has participated in these festivals for many 
generations. The tombe is a wonderful old instrument, 
made perhaps six or seven centuries ago, by hollowing 
out a section of the solid trunk of a tree with the rude 
flint knife of the ancients. The two ends were then cov- 
ered with green rawhide on which some of the hair was 
still allowed to remain, which was then laced together 
with green rawhide thongs. When these became dry they 
pulled the two drum-heads as taut as if they were stretched 
by the most approved method of modern instrument 
makers. 

Turn, turn, turn, beat the drums, all in perfect time. 
All together, as if they were controlled by machinery, 
each man-dancer raised his right foot with a quick jerk 
to the height of eight or ten inches above the ground. 
The next moment, but all in time, he gives a tiny hitch 
forward or hop with his left foot, while the right foot 
is suspended in the air. Then, bringing the right foot 
down, he lifts his left foot with the same quick jerk, 
following the movement with the tiny hop of the right 
foot. It is this little and almost imperceptible hop, fol- 
lowing the main step, that gives the peculiar character 
to the Indian's dances. As the afternoon progressed and 
the fervour of the dancers increased, the step became 
higher and more vigorous and the little hitch of the other 
foot more marked. To dance such dances the Indians 
must need be athletes, as no others could possibly endure 
the physical labour for any length of time. 

The chorus was particularly interesting. The leaders 
were young men dressed in snow-white shirts, and many 
of them wore regular sombrero hats of civilized make. 



Acdma, the City of the Cliffs 169 

A few had on coloured calico shirts and the usual Indian 
headband. Their singing was in perfect time and their 
voices were rich, resonant, strong and pleasing, entirely 
different from the nasal, high-pitched, falsetto screeching 
often indulged in by the Navahos and Mexicans. While 
most of the songs were of their own pecuHar type there 
was one chorus, oft repeated, that was certainly of Span- 
ish origin, and questioning Tata Lorenzo, he informed 
me that it was taught to his ancestors, long, long years 
ago by the padres. 

The dancing kept up until near the time of the setting- 
sun. Then all the crowd seemed to center in front of 
one of the house-tops on which the caciques and medicine 
men were seated, calmly smoking cigarettes and awaiting 
the arrival of some one. Almost simultaneously with our 
own arrival at the rear of the crowd there came two stal- 
wart young fellows, followed by two buxom Indian maid- 
ens, each laden down with the gifts that had been de- 
posited during the day in front of the altar. Setting 
these down by the side of the caciques, they withdrew to 
watch the fun they knew would follow. The caciques 
arose, and, picking up the articles one by one, hurled them 
out into the midst of the crowd. One can imagine the 
shouts, yells and cheers that followed. A baked shoulder 
of mutton was followed by a half dozen loaves, baked 
in a peculiar mold to conform to certain religious ideas. 
Pieces of red calico were whirled out, followed or pre- 
ceded by a squash or watermelon. If either of the latter 
happened to miss the hands of its would-be catcher and 
was smashed in its fall, the jollity and merriment seemed 
only to be increased. The skill of the catchers was 
equaled only by tTie speed with which they disposed of 
that which they caught, each catcher evidently having an 
accomplice to carry what was caught, and with whom. 



170 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

possibly, he shared his plunder later on. This merry 
scene continued until all the gifts were distributed, and 
that brought to a close the ceremonies of that particular 
day. 

On one occasion, however, I was present at the Fiesta 
de San Estchan at Acoma, when I had several friends 
with me. There were two ladies, Gardner Symons, the 
well-known artist, and a distinguished French priest, who 
afterwards became the bishop of an adjoining state. Fa- 
ther Juillard was also present, and he had brought with 
him a fine silver cornet upon which he played with con- 
siderable ability. Having in mind what we now pro' 
ceeded to carry out I had provided myself with some 
fifty pounds of cheap candy. While everybody was hav- 
ing time to eat after the violent exertions of the day — 
either as participants or sight-seers — messengers were 
sent to announce that all the children of the pueblo were 
to meet me at Tata Lorenzo's house, to have a proces- 
sion of their own, and be treated to " dulces." In half 
an hour we were surrounded by a happy, shouting, ges- 
ticulating mob, howling and laughing, as we threw hand- 
fuls of candy in the air in every direction, and let the 
youngsters scramble for it. 

Then, as the padre played the airs on his cornet, I 
taught the youngsters to sing them, which they did with 
a vim and an accent that made them very amusing. 
When they had learned " John Brown's Body Lies 
Mold'ring in the Grave " and " Marching Through Geor- 
gia," we formed a procession, and, led by the cornet, the 
whole mob of us started to procession the town, singing 
these two songs, just as the religious procession had 
marched through the town in the morning. In a few 
moments every housetop had its Indian occupants, and 
smiling bronzed faces of papas and mamas, aunts and 



Dance at the Fiesta de San Esteban at Acoma 

f^rom a PamHng made expressly for the author by 
Eva Almond IVithrow. 



Acoma, the City of the Cliffs 171 

uncles, cousins, grandpas and grandmas, were waving 
and shouting greeting to the happy, boisterous band of 
youngsters and the jolly-hearted priest and the white men 
who were making a festival for the little ones. 

No idea of hurting the Indians' feelings entered our 
minds, for I knew they were too simple-hearted, too fond 
of their own fun to regard this as any other than good- 
natured amusement. Indeed, in several of their cere- 
monies — as with the Zunis and other Pueblos — they 
have " Delight Makers " who openly caricature nearly 
everything done by their shamans in their sacred cere- 
monials. 

Everybody was delighted. Everybody was radiantly 
happy. Everybody thought it a grand conclusion to the 
interesting and happy day. 

But even when all the children had been dismissed and 
we had returned to Lorenzo's house, we found the pro- 
gram was not yet completed. Tata Lorenzo had so en- 
joyed the playing of the cornet that he had requested the 
padre to give him and his family a little more music. 
Gladly the genial padre responded to his request, and for 
an hour or more played all kinds of American, French 
and other airs in which we now and again joined in 
chorus. 

Some of these songs were college songs, and in these 
Symons joined with all the swing and vigour and, by 
and by, some of the " cutting-up " spirit of our college 
youth when they are bent on having a good time. He 
and Tata Lorenzo were already great friends, and it must 
have been the very opposite of their characters that had 
bound them together. Tata Lorenzo was the most sol- 
emn, dignified, stately Indian we met on the whole trip; 
while Mr. Symons was of that excitable, vivacious, jolly 
temperament that made fun of, for, and with everything 



172 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

and everybody. Yet it mattered not what he did, his 
every act seemed to meet the approval of Lorenzo, and 
now, all at once, he started a fantastic, dramatic repre- 
sentation of that wild, foolish, frivolous and ridiculous 
song, " The Wild Man of Borneo Has Just Come to 
Town." Thrusting his fingers through his long hair and 
making it stand on end, turning up his coat collar and 
acting like a veritable wild man, dancing and gesticulating 
with a fantastic ferocity and vigour that only a wild 
African could have emulated, he sung in inimitable style 
this excruciatingly ridiculous thing — that is, it was ex- 
cruciatingly ridiculous as he sung it. In front of him 
sat the dignified Lorenzo. Advancing toward him, re- 
treating from him, dancing to the right and left of him, 
making all kinds of dramatic gestures, couth and uncouth, 
he sang until the rest of us were hysterical with laughter. 
Without a change of facial expression to signify what he 
thought, the immobile Indian sat looking and listening, 
and only at the conclusion of the song, his hearty con- 
gratulations as he arose and patted his white friend on 
the back, affectionately putting his arm around him, 
showed how sincerely he meant it when in his simple way 
he exclaimed in Spanish, " Esta bueno! Esta mucho 
bueno!" 

Symons is now the dignified artist, not only a proud 
and happy benedict, but the winner of several notable 
prizes eagerly coveted by artists, but I doubt not he often 
looks back with feelings of merriment to that riotous day 
on the mesa at ancient Acoma. 

My last visit to Acoma was at the beginning of winter 
at the close of the year 19 17. Several lectures I had 
given in Albuquerque had aroused the desire of a num- 
ber of its citizens to see Acoma and the Enchanted Mesa. 
Accordingly I was asked if I would accompany a party. 



Acoma, the City of the Cliffs 173 

In two days thirty-five — some of them students of the 
Albuquerque Business College — were ready to go in au- 
tomobiles that were provided. Part of the way the roads 
were fairly good ; and of the rest the less said the better. 
Lunching on the way and considering the roads we made 
fairly good time, though we got lost after making the turn 
south into the valley so eloquently described on another 
page by Mr. Lummis. Hence, that night, though it was 
cold and frosty, we camped at the foot of Katsimo, the 
Enchanted Mesa. After a rousing fire had been built, 
cofifee and Horlick's malted milk made and our supper 
partaken of, all of us well wrapped up and as comfortable 
as we could make ourselves, I read to the party Lummis's 
version of the " Enchanted and Enchanting Mesa," after 
which I told how Professor Libbey scaled the height and 
of the great discussion that followed (as related in the 
chapter devoted to this subject). To say that the party 
as a whole slept comfortably that night would be a 
stretching of the truth. I verily believe I did better than 
any one else, though none of us was extra well provided 
with bedding. In the morning, however, a rejuvenation 
of the fire, a hearty breakfast, with one or two cups of 
steaming hot cofifee, put jollity into all of us, and we pro- 
ceeded to Acoma. There, before ascending the trail, 
I deemed it well to notify the governor of our arrival 
and ask his permission to visit the village, enter the 
church, and see all the interesting sights. I also sent 
word to a former governor, who was now a principale, 
and with whom I had foregathered a number of times at 
the San Francisco Exposition of 191 5, and in whose home 
at Acoma I had been a guest on half a dozen different 
occasions, that I should be pleased to see him. Our In- 
dian messenger soon returned with the information that 
the governor and the principales were engaged in a solemn 



174 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

ceremonial in the kiva, which would last eight more days, 
and at the end of that time, and not before, we were wel- 
come to ascend the trail and see Acoma. 

Here was cheering tidings! Some members of the 
company, having the ordinary Eastern conception of the 
quarrelsomeness and blood-thirstiness of the Indian, were 
for retiring immediately. But I urged them to wait 
awhile. Asking the party to keep together and when I 
signaled them to come ahead in perfect silence, I recon- 
noitered, found no sentinels watching, or guards to pre- 
vent our ascending by the southwest trail, so I decided 
to steal a march upon the Indians and reach the top and 
then defy them to send us down. 

Almost breathlessly, some of the party scared white 
with the daring of the adventure, and all of us out of 
breath before we reached the top, as silently as an Ameri- 
can patrol crossing No Man's Land to reach the Hun 
trenches, we scaled the height and stood near the rear of 
the old Mission church. Here our presence was soon 
detected, and the governor and official interpreter, hav- 
ing hastily been summoned, appeared to bar our way. 
"Were we not told that we could not come? Did we 
not know we were unwelcome? Had we not been in- 
formed that sacred and secret ceremonies were going on? 
That the presence of white people at such a time might 
drive away the gods? " 

Resolved to be as courteous and considerate as the 
conditions would allow, but feeling that in forbidding 
us the mesa and the village they were transcending their 
power I insisted that Tata Lorenzo (my old friend) be 
sent for. In a short time he came from the depths of 
the kiva. In his eyes were the mysteries of the important 
rites, in the performance of which he was engaged, and 
instead of his ordinary warm hand-clasp and embrace, 



Acoma, the City of the Cliffs 175 

he looked right through me, refusing to speak or to recog- 
nize me. 

This was immediately taken by some of the party as a 
sign that we should speedily be thrown from the mesa 
as were the daring Spaniards of old. But recognizing the 
fact that Lorenzo was now engaged in one of those mystic 
rites that required that he see and speak with no outsider 
during its continuance — even as the Navahos officially 
and formally may never see their mothers-ifi-law — I 
turned my attention to the governor. He then handed 
me a paper on which was written in handwriting I imme- 
diately recognized the following notice : 

To whom it may concern: 

Any person or persons desirous to visit the old historic village 
of Acoma will please see the Governor or some one of the 
principales. 

There will be a charge of one dollar for each person for just 
visiting around the old pueblo of Acoma. 

These shall have an escort to show places of interest. 

If any person or persons desiring to take pictures for private 
use will be charged a fee of five dollars for the liberty to do so. 

We desire to be courteous to all and wish the same good will of 
people. 

We will be glad to show and explain to all persons coming to us 
the right way any place or places of importance. 

Please see or arrange with some official and principale of the 
Acomas. 

Very respectfully yours, 

' Rio Garcia, 

Governor Acoma. 
January 12, 1917. 

As soon as I had read this document I asked, " Who 
wrote this? " and immediately the interpreter replied, " I 
'did!" 

" You," I exclaimed ; " this was written by James 
Miller," my Acoma friend of long ago. 

" What do you know of James Miller? " he asked. 



176 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

I began to tell him, and at the same time to look more 
carefully at him than hitherto I had done. In the midst 
of my explanation I burst out, " Why, you are James 
Miller, you rascal ! What do you mean by holding us up 
in this inhospitable fashion ? " 

In two or three minutes everything was made clear 
and straight, and all difficulties removed. He had aged 
so much in a few years that I had not recognized him. 
I promised that we would keep away from the kiva (in 
which I had spent several nights in Miller's company at 
ceremonies I have never yet seen described). We merely 
wished to see the homes of the people, one of the reser- 
voirs, and the old mission church. Himself acting as our 
guide we were shown all we wished to see, the only halt 
being a diplomatic one at the church, the key of which 
could not be found. Taking up a collection I suggested 
that the amount would be transferred inside the church. 
In three minutes the transfer was made and Miller was 
giving the party the history of the old painting and an- 
swering the thousand and one questions that were asked 
him. A happy morning was spent and it was with re- 
luctance we tore ourselves away, feeling to the full what 
Lummis declares: 

It is a labyrinth of wonder of which no person alive knows all, 
and of which not six white men have even an adequate conception, 
though hundreds have seen it in part. The longest visit never wears 
out its glamour: one feels as in a strange, sweet, unearthly dream 
— as among scenes and beings more than human, whose very- 
rocks are genii, and whose people swart conjurors. It is spend- 
thrift of beauty. 

We had all felt its glamour and went away forever to 
be under its spell, glad to be able to call up its wonderful 
memories and let our imaginations conjure back its un- 
earthly beauties, its weird romances, its thrilling history, 
and its unguessed mysteries. 



Acoma, the City of the Cliffs 177 

Of the other Pueblos of New Mexico one could write 
not one but many books. This chapter, and those on 
Zuni and Taos, however, must serve as an introduction 
to the reader if he be unfamiliar with them. Each has 
its own peculiar fascination, Santo Domingo, for instance, 
to this day, strongly resenting the presence of any white 
persons at their ceremonials. 



CHAPTER X 

KATZIMO THE ENCHANTED MESA 

One of the most romantic of all the many romantic 
spots of New Mexico is the Enchanted Mesa, not far 
from Acoma, the city of the Sky. This was first brought 
into public prominence by Charles F. Lummis, who, in a 
volume of New Mexico stories.^ tells its fascinating story 
in his best style. The basis of the story is a legend told 
by the Acoma Indians that, long centuries ago, they occu- 
pied the summit of the Enchanted Mesa — Indian, Kat- 
zimo — as their home. The quotations are all from Mr. 
Lummis's book. 

The story opens with the proclamation of the Gover- 
nor: 

Hear ye, people of Acoma, for I, the Governor, speak. To-mor- 
row, go ye down to the fields to plow ; already it is the month of 
rain, and there is little in the storerooms. Let all go forth, that 
we build shelters of cedar and stay in the fields. The women, also, 
to cook for us. Take ye, each one, food for a month. And pray 
that the Sun-Father, Pa-yct-yania, give us much corn this year. 

The people gladly obeyed this official summons save 
one boy whose father thus charged him : 

Thy mother is very sick and cannot go to the fields, and it is not 
kind to leave her alone. Only that I am a councilor of the city 
and must give a good example in working, I would stay with her. 
A hundred children will go to the fields, but thou shalt be a man 
to keep the town. Two other women lie sick near the estufa, and 
thou shalt care for thy mother and for them. 

^ A New Mexico David, By Charles F. Lummis. 

178 



Katzimo — The Enchanted Mesa 179 

Though the fifteen-year-old lad was exceedingly dis- 
appointed that he could not go, he bravely acquiesced in 
his father's command, and the next morning soon after 
sunrise the exodus began. 

Already a long procession of men, women, and children, bearing 
heavy burdens for the packs, was starting toward the southern 
brink of the cliff. A deep, savage cleft, gnawed out by the rains 
of centuries, afforded a dangerous path for five hundred feet 
downward; and then began the great Ladder Rock. A vast stone 
column, once part of the mesa, but cut off by the erosion of un- 
numbered ages, had toppled over so that its top leaned against 
the cliff, its base being two hundred feet out in a young mountain 
of soft, white sand. Up this almost precipitous rock a series 
of shallow steps had been cut. To others, this dizzy ladder would 
have seemed insurmountable; but these sure-footed Children of 
the Sun thought nothing of it. It gave the only possible access 
to the mesa's top, and a well-aimed stone would roll a climbing 
enemy in gory fragments to the bottom. They could afford a little 
trouble for the sake of having the most impregnable city in the 
world — these quiet folk who hated war, but lived among the 
most desperate savage warriors the world has ever known. 

Left alone, the boy proceeded to care for his mother 
and the two other sick ones, and, fearful lest the hated 
Apaches might come in the absence of the warriors, he 
piled up stones as weapons at the head of the stone trail 
to throw down upon them should they appear. 

For two days things moved along uneventfully, though 
the lad slept at night at the sentry post above the ladder 
to guard against surprise. 

This night when he had fed the sick, A'-chi-te took his bow and 
quiver and started for his post. It was already growing dark, and 
the storm showed no sign of abatement. It was a fearful climb 
down to his little crow's nest of a fort. The narrow, slippery path 
was at an average angle of over fifty degrees, and was now choked 
with a seething torrent. He had at one time to climb along pre- 
carious ledges above the water, and at another to trust him- 
self waist deep in that avalanche of foam — keeping from being 
swept down to instant death only by pressing desperately against 
the rocky walls of the gorge, here not more than three feet apart. 



180 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

But at last, trembling with exhaustion, he drew himself up to his 
little niche and sank upon his drenched bed, while the white torrent 
bellowed and raved under his feet, as if maddened at the loss of its 
expected prey. Deeper and deeper grew the darkness, fiercer the 
storm. Such a rain had never been seen before in all the country 
of Hano Oshatch. It came down in great sheets that veered 
and slanted with the desperate wind, dug up stout cedars by the 
roots, and pried great rocks from their lofty perches to send them 
thundering down the valley. To the shivering boy, drenched and 
alone in his angle of the giant cliff, it was a fearful night ; and 
older heroes than he might have been pardoned for uneasiness. 
But he never thought of leaving his post ; and, hugging the rocky 
wall to escape as he could the pitiless pelting of the cold rain, he 
watched the long hours through. 

Then he heard the call of his mother. The house had 
fallen and had broken her arm and she requested him to 
descend to the valley and run at once and bring his father, 
ere she died. 

It was a terrible task to descend that rocky ladder-way, 
and several times the rushing waters almost swept him 
away. He was sure, as he climbed down the slippery 
slope, that the great Ladder Rock trembled. 

It took him half an hour to reach the bottom of the 
rock, and then, when he looked downward, he was aghast. 
In the great heap of sand upon which the Ladder Rock 
had rested for centuries, the dashing waters had gnawed 
a gully fifty feet deep. There was but one way of escape, 
and that was to jump into the pinion tree ten feet below 
and fifteen feet away. Desperately he made the leap and 
fell crushing through the brittle branches, catching him- 
self, and breaking his fall. Then dashing off down the 
valley to the fields eight miles away, he felt assured that 
his errand would succeed. 

Suddenly he felt the ground quiver beneath his feet. A strange 
rushing sound filled his ears ; and, whirling about, he saw the 
great Ladder Rock rear, throw its head out from the cliff, reel 
there an instant in mid-air, and then go toppling out into the 



Katzimo — The Enchanted Mesa 181 

plain like some wounded Titan. As those thousands of tons of 
rock smote upon the solid earth with a hideous roar, a great cloud 
went up, and the valley seemed to rock to and fro. From the 
face of the cliffs, three miles away, great rocks came leaping and 
thundering down, and the tall pinions swayed and bowed as before 
a hurricane. A'-chi-te was thrown headlong by the shock, and lay 
stunned. The Ladder Rock had fallen — the unprecedented flood 
had undermined its sandy bed ! 

When the flood subsided the Acomas returned to their 
mesa to find the steep walls forbidding access to their 
former home, and though they heard the wails of their 
despairing women, there was no scaling those precipitous 
cliffs. 

Thus, forever afterwards, this rock of startling 
grandeur to the stranger was to them Katzimo, the ac- 
cursed. 

Thus the legend. Reading this charming story as 
thousands of others had done, Professor William Libbey 
of Princeton, determined to make the ascent of the Mesa 
and see what he could find on its summit. 

Not a few people, myself among the number, had es- 
sayed this task but without success. Professor Libbey 
determined to waste no efforts. Securing a mortar from 
which a life-saving line is shot to a wrecked vessel, he 
fired a rope over the Mesa, securely fastened it, and then 
made the ascent in a boatswain's chair. He failed to 
find any evidence of former occupation, and so re- 
ported. 

At once a bitter controversy was started that, in fury 
and virulence, almost equaled the vindictive assaults of 
rival theologians. A little later Frederick W. Hodge, of 
the Bureau of American Ethnology, made the ascent and 
found many evidences of human presence and thus re- 
garded the legend as confirmed. 

When I entered the controversy my opinion was ex- 



182 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

pressed in the Scientific American Supplement (April 22, 
1899) ^s follows. I have seen no reason to change it in 
the years that have since elapsed : 

To my mind the question to be decided is : Does any- 
thing on the summit or near the Mesa Encantada bear out 
the centuries-old tradition of the Acomas that this was 
once the home of their ancestors? 

And this point, I think, it will be conceded, must be 
settled by one or more of the following : 

1. By discovery of ruins on the Mesa large enough to 
account for the residence of a whole people. 

2. By discovery of such evidences of occupation by 
large numbers of people as to reasonably satisfy the 
seeker, if the ruins mentioned in proposition one are 
absent. 

3. By satisfactorily accounting for the absence of 
either ruins or direct evidences of occupation, if neither 
are found. 

The importance of settling the discussion in a legiti- 
mate manner is evident to the student of Indian lore and 
tradition. It is readily apparent that, if this tradition is 
discredited, a first and great step is taken toward dis- 
crediting all Indian tradition, and thus another obstacle 
is placed in the way of arriving at reasonably accurate 
conclusions in regard to the prehistoric life of all Indian 
peoples. So, personally, I am profoundly anxious that 
the main and important features of the Katzimo tradition 
of Acoma should be preserved in all their integrity and 
fullness, and ultimately demonstrated, beyond all ques- 
tion, to be true. 

That evidences of human presence were found on Kat- 
zimo all agree, but there is a vast difference between evi- 
dences of human presence and evidence that a large vil- 
lage or city was once here occupied. 



Katzimo — The Enchanted Mesa 183 

Had the Acomas lived on the Mesa Encantada, several 
things are morally certain. These are : 

1. They undoubtedly would have built their houses as 
elsewhere in this region we find mesa cities built, viz., not 
of adobe, which would have to be carried by arduous 
labour from the valley beneath, but of the chips and 
pieces or blocks of sandstone left by erosion on the mesa 
top and on side terraces, easily accessible and far more 
suitable than adobe. 

Ruins of such cities are found all through this region 
on mesas. On the mesa just above the Cibolleta ranch 
is a large circular fort ruin, with a circumference of 
nearly a thousand feet, built of sandstone, and in a fair 
state of preservation. About fifteen miles further west 
is another ruin on a mesa overlooking the lava fields. A 
wall 150 feet long (or more) crosses the mesa, and be- 
hind it is a large area covered with ruins. On the top 
parts of El Morro, or Inscription Rock, are also two 
stone ruins covering moderate sized areas. All these 
ruins are in a fair state of preservation. 

2. Had such a city existed on Mesa Encantada, the 
ruins undoubtedly would have remained exactly as in the 
cases referred to. I do not think large blocks and pieces 
of sandstone would have been eroded or washed away. 
The sloping condition of the Mesa Encantada summit is 
by no means unusual. The Circular Ruins at Cibolleta 
are on a sloping mesa, so also are the other two sets of 
ruins mentioned. And yet, according to the Indian tra- 
ditions recounted to me both at Acoma and Zuni, and 
verified by Navahos, Hopis, and Lagunas, all these ruins 
are as ancient (or more so) as the ruins of Acoma would 
have been had they occupied Katzimo. 

3. Another matter of importance should be considered. 
The village of the Acomas in the early days must neces- 



184 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

sarily have been much larger than the modern Acoma. 
For Juan de Ofiate estimated its population at 3,000, and 
Villagra in his epic says it was 6,000 when the attack of 
Capt. Vicente de Zaldivar took place on January 22, 1599. 
Only 600 of these people remained after the conflict. 
The present-day population of Acoma is less than 600, 
and yet six or more large blocks of three-storied houses 
are all occupied in housing them on their present site. 
Now, taking the population of 3,000 of Ofiate's estimate 
— leaving Villagra's estimate out of the question — and 
then reducing the number to 2,000, or even 1,000, it is 
apparent that a large number of buildings would have been 
required to house them, even according to early Pueblo 
methods, and such a town would neither blow away nor 
wash away easily, or during many times many furious 
storms. That a half a score or more of such ruined cities 
still exist on wind, cloud, rain, and storm-swept mesa 
summits almost, if not equally, as exposed as the Mesa 
Encantada city (had it existed) would have been, nulli- 
fies, I would venture to suggest, that hypothesis. 
Hence my own conclusions, viz. : 

1. That while Mesa Encantada was undoubtedly the 
scene many times of human presence ; and, 

2. While the worn trail and other evidences clearly 
demonstrate that the Indians have often visited it, these 
facts ought not to be accepted as conclusive evidence of 
the truth of our interpretation of the Acoma tradition, 
viz., that their ancient city of a thousand or two inhabi- 
tants was once located here. 

3. And that, in my opinion, both Indian and white man 
are at fault in regard to the exact location of Katzimo, 
and that further research will yet discover it and show far 
more positive and ocular demonstration of its having been 
the occupied site of a large city than the so-called Kat- 



Katzimo — The Enchanted Mesa 185 

zimo and Mesa Encantada of the present discussion has 
done. My reasons for advancing this last idea are : 

1. My firm belief in the general truth and reliabihty of 
the tradition. 

2. The unsatisfactory evidence adduced in favour of 
the village occupancy of the mesa hitherto known as the 
Mesa Encantada. 

3. My knowledge of the possibility of error, both by 
Indian and white, owing to the lapse of centuries, in de- 
termining the location. 

4. My actual conversations with Indians of Acoma, 
who definitely assert that the scaled mesa is not their 
Katzimo, and that " may be so " some day they will con- 
duct me to the real, genuine, sole, and only Katzimo or 
Mesa Encantada, where many ruins are to be found. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE ARTS AND INDUSTRIES OF THE INDIANS 

Crude and primitive though the creations of Indians 
may seem at first sight there are many things of historic 
interest, of inventive genius, and of decided artistic merit 
among them that are deserving of extended notice. 

Among Indians, as with the whites, there are people 
who have their art specialties, and among the Pueblos, 
these, in general terms, may be stated to be pottery, silver- 
smithing, and bead-making. We must not ignore the 
fact, however, that the Pueblos build their own houses — 
the women doing much of the work, which, by the way, 
they perfectly delight in. Nothing pleases a woman more 
than to plaster a new house or to replaster an old one. 
While among the Hopis of Arizona, the women practi- 
cally do all the work, the Zunis and other New Mexico 
Pueblos require their men to lay the stone foundations, 
build the major part of the walls, and place the heavy 
ceiling beams in position. The women act as assistants, 
preparing the clay for mortar, bringing up the stones, 
and gathering the willow boughs and brush that are to be 
placed across the beams and covered with a thick layer 
of mud to make the roof. The little girls also help, espe- 
cially in carrying water from the reservoirs or stream 
to the mortar mixers, and the scene is enlivened by their 
graceful movements, bright coloured dresses, and cheery 
chatter as they pass to and fro. 

There are also some weavers among them, though few 
blankets are made, that art having been absorbed almost 

186 



Arts and Industries of the Indians 187 

entirely by the Navahos. A few men are to be found, 
however, even at this late date, who weave the dresses of 
the women, in rich diagonal patterns, with wool or cotton 
dyed deep blue. When first I visited the New Mexico 
pueblos, over thirty years ago, there were many such 
weavers, but it is a rare thing to find these garments made 
now-a-days. Our flimsy, civilized, cheap, coloured calico 
garments have taken their place. 

The same may be said of the beautifully woven garters, 
head-bands and girdles still worn by both men and women. 
These are woven by either men or women, generally the 
latter, and it is a fascinating sight to see an expert weaver, 
with her primitive appliances, producing one of these ar- 
tistic and desirable articles. 

It must not be thought, however, that the Pueblos are 
unable to weave as well as the Navahos if they so desire. 
On several occasions I have induced Zunis, Acomas, and 
other Pueblo Indians to weave blankets for me, that could 
not be differentiated from the work of the Navahos and 
that equaled the best of their work. Both men and 
women are able to do this, at will, but, for so many years 
has the Navaho almost monopolized the art that most 
people think the Pueblo never had it. 

Very little basketry is made, and that of a crude char- 
acter, except by a few of the Arizona Apaches who occa- 
sionally drift over to visit their New Mexico relatives. 
The Mescalero Apaches, whose reservation is not far 
from Tularosa, make baskets in large numbers, but they 
are of coarse weave, wretchedly dyed and not to be com- 
pared with the exquisite work of the White Mountain and 
San Carlos Apaches of Arizona. 

Of course all the Indians of New Mexico are farmers, 
familiar with irrigation from time immemorial, and pro- 
ducing results in places and under conditions that would 



188 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

be discouraging, if not entirely disheartening, to most 
white men. Their methods of planting and reaping are 
simple and primitive and are often accompanied by re- 
ligious ceremonies of great interest because of their deep 
symbolism. To see a man planting corn with his rude 
stick shovel — a smoothed-ofif bough from a tree, with 
the lower end broad and sharpened so that it can be 
thrust into the ground — is to wonder how results can 
be produced with such primitive appliances. 

Their irrigating ditches are generally well planned and 
engineered and are effective, except when flood waters 
come and destroy their crude little head-works. There is 
scarcely any attempt at the construction of dams, though 
in later years they have been taught, by contact with the 
whites, to attempt something in this line. 

Their chief agricultural products are corn, beans, 
squash, melons, chili-peppers, onions, peaches, alfalfa, 
barley and oats for hay. 

One of the remarkable things about their corn and 
beans is that they have developed, by selection, colours 
which harmonize with the six regions; yellow for the 
north, blue for the west, red for the south, white for the 
east, variegated for the zenith, and black for the nadir. 
" They have all shades of yellow and blue," says Mrs. 
Stevenson, of the Zunis, and " red from the deepest car- 
dinal to the most delicate pink. The white corn is in- 
tensely white, and there are remarkable varieties of varie- 
gated corn. There are several shades of purple corn, and 
black corn. The same variety of shades is to be found 
in the beans, which are grown in the cornfield." 

The symbolism of colour is most important to the 
Pueblos, as well as to the Navahos. I have dealt with 
this subject with a certain degree of fullness elsewhere.^ 

1 Indian Blankets and their Makers. 



Arts and Industries of the Indians 189 

Perhaps there is no art among the Pueblo Indians more 
distinctive and revelative than that of pottery. 

What is more interesting in the study of human devel- 
opment than the first steps taken toward the discovery of 
useful articles or implements? Try to imagine a people 
existing without clothes, houses, a single utensil of clay, 
tin, iron, brass or other metal, without a basket, a tool, 
ignorant of the properties of matter, or even of the 
existence of minerals — what would be the condition of 
such a people? Now watch them, as, step by step they 
emerge from this primitive helplessness and begin to dis- 
cover, to invent, things for their use and convenience. 

A whole treatise has been written upon the tremendous 
and epochal change that came over the aboriginal when 
he discovered the use of sticks and stones as implements 
of offense and defense. 

Is it not easy to coriceive that a similar change came 
when he discovered a method of carrying many more 
things than his two hands could hold? 

There has been considerable discussion among the anti- 
quarian ethnologists as to which was discovered first — 
pottery or basketry. Personally I am inclined to accept 
the conclusions of Lieut. Frank H. Gushing, stated by 
him in a monograph, published by the U. S. Bureau of 
Ethnology. He shows how, even to this day, when the 
Indian wishes to parch his corn or other seeds he takes 
a handful of clay and molds it to fit the shape and cover 
the inside of his saucer-shaped basket. This protects the 
wicker-work, and allows the mixing with the seeds of a 
number of red-hot coals from the fire. The seeds and 
coals are then shuffled about by rotary and shaking move- 
ments of the basket, until the cooking process is complete. 
But during the process the clay becomes baked, and, by 
and by, separates itself from the basket. To the astonish- 



190 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

merit, doubtless, of the first Indian to discover it, here was 
a new utensil, different from the basket, and in one re- 
spect at least, superior to it and more useful, for it would 
hold water. This is the beginning of the art of pottery, 
and unquestionably all bowls and other vessels were long 
made by using a basket as a matrix or mold. 

Then, sometime, somehow, some dark-skinned little 
woman hit upon the plan of making a coil or rope of 
clay, and winding it around on the basket she wished to 
use as a pottery mold, instead of taking a dab of clay 
and spreading it over the surface with her hands. 

Most of the earlier specimens of pottery clearly reveal 
in the impressions made upon the plastic clay, the weave 
of the basket upon which they were molded, and the way 
the clay was pinched to hold the coils together is also 
shown. In a few cases the outer surface was smoothed 
over so that practically all pinch marks were erased. 

This method received further advancement when it 
was discovered that the clay coils would stand upright 
upon each other without the support of a basket mold. 

From the date of this discovery the origin of pottery- 
making as a separate and distinct art may be said to begin. 
How long ago that is we can only conjecture, but we do 
know that, save for the discovery of variations in pottery 
forms, and the addition of designs upon the completed 
vessels, there has been no further advance. For the 
Pueblo Indians of to-day make pottery in the same way 
that it has been made for centuries. 

The method is simple. At Zuni, Acoma, Laguna and 
all the pueblos of the Rio Grande the process may be 
watched at any time, for there are good potters in every 
village. 

After the clay is dug, in some cases different kinds are 
mixed — the potters having found that vessels made from 



Arts and Industries of the Indians 191 

mixed clays are more durable. It is then well puddled to 
make it soft and pliable, though they do not seem to un- 
derstand that washing would improve it by taking away 
the impurities. The puddling is generally a simple 
kneading with the hand. When all is ready, the potter, 
with a mass of clay by her side, begins to work. Her 
only tools are a small spatula made either of bone or 
dried gourd skin, a bowl of water, and a small circular 
piece of basketry to act as a base for the vessel. 

Pinching a chunk out of the clay, she rolls it into a 
rope of the desired thickness. Then, with the basket 
base on her lap, or on the ground at her side, she starts 
the coil, pressing one coil close to the preceding one with 
her fingers, and revolving the basket base as she lays the 
coil. As soon as one clay rope is exhausted, she makes 
another, pinches the two ends together to make the coil 
continuous, and thus continues the operation until the 
vessel is made. 

If it is a bowl the shaping process is comparatively 
easy, consisting merely of smoothing down the edges of 
the coil until a plane surface is produced, the left hand 
sustaining the vessel inside, while the right hand uses the 
spatula, which is now and again dipped into the water to 
keep it from sticking. 

If, however, the vessel is to be a jar, or olla, with a 
narrow neck and mouth, not only must the clay-coil be 
placed with accuracy to ensure the proper proportionate 
enlargement, but it must be smoothed down with care to 
prevent undue caving in. 

As soon as the smoothing down is completed the vessel 
is allowed to remain on its basket base in the sun for a 
day or two when it shrinks sufficiently to remove it with 
ease. It is then ready to be decorated. Cooking uten- 
sils, however, are used as they are. White clay of a cer- 



192 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

tain proven kind is taken, dissolved in water, and then 
made into cones which are dried in the sun. All potters 
are supposed to keep a stock of these cones, as well as 
pieces of rock, red, blue, green, yellow, and the like, for 
decorative purposes. When needed they are pounded or 
ground in tiny mortars (similar to those used for grind- 
ing their corn, only smaller), mixed with water and a 
vegetable extract, which adds to its sticking qualities. 
The colour is applied to the whole surface of the vessel 
with a rabbit-skin mop. While still wet the process of 
polishing the surface begins. Smooth stones of flint or 
other hard substance are rubbed tirelessly over a small 
area until it shines. When the whole vessel is thus pol- 
ished it is ready for the decorative design. Without any 
other copy than that carried in her busy and artistic little 
brain the decorator goes to work. Her brush is made of 
hair, or yucca fiber, and her colours ground with a mix- 
ture of yucca fruit syrup (to give them extra sticking 
qualities). 

The black pigment is mixed with water from boiled 
cleome serrulata, a flowering plant called by the Mexi- 
cans, waco. Many and various, strange and peculiar, 
striking and fantastic are the designs she conjures up. 
Some of them are purely geometrical — squares, paral- 
lelograms, circles, diamonds and the like; then there are 
flowers, trees, rocks, rain-clouds and other meteorological 
symbols, birds, reptiles, animals, men and women, and 
occasionally, the masked figures that represent their lesser 
divinities. 

The ware is now ready to be fired. For this purpose 
cakes of well-dried dung are gathered from the sheep and 
goat pens. The pottery is placed on rocks to raise it 
slightly from the ground, and then the dung is built up 
around and over it so as to form an oven. It is then set 



Arts and Industries of the Indians 193 

on fire, and so manipulated that the heat increases grad- 
ually until it is intense, the process lasting about two 
hours. A small piece of wafer bread is placed in each 
vessel, in order that, as it burns, the spiritual essence of 
the vessel may absorb the spiritual essence of the bread. 

The Zunis believe that if a pregnant woman gazes upon 
a piece of pottery while it is being fired it will be marred 
with a black spot. This is the explanation they give al- 
ways to any black blemish that appears during the firing. 

Among the pottery-makers of New Mexico perhaps 
the Zunis rank highest, both as to the quality of their 
ware, its durability, and the striking characters of the 
designs. A common design is one that introduces the 
deer, with a long tube reaching from the mouth to the 
stomach, making what, to the white critic, is a rather 
amusing representation. 

It should also be noted that many of the designs, espe- 
cially upon the older pottery, are so highly conventional- 
ized that only the initiated can determine the original of 
the motif. 

The Acomas make a showy pottery but it is not as 
strong and durable as that of the Zunis. Their designs, 
however, have a far wider scope in that flowers, leaves, 
and trees are introduced. 

All of the Pueblos of the Rio Grande have their rep- 
resentative potters, and while there are general charac- 
teristics in all the ware made there are some minor differ- 
ences which enable the expert to tell where a particular 
vessel is made. 

One pueblo, however, that of Santo Domingo, makes a 
ware entirely distinctive. It is pure black, without any 
design, and exceedingly well polished. 

That the collecting of clay is not a mere material proc- 
ess is thus explained by Mrs. Stevenson, in her great 



194 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

monograph upon the Zunis. She is telHng of how Col. 
Stevenson and herself accompanied We-wha to Corn 
Mountain — Taiyoallane — to obtain clay. 

" On passing a stone heap she picked up a small stone 
in her left hand, and spitting upon it, carried the hand 
around her head and threw the stone over one shoulder 
upon the stone heap in order that her strength might not 
go from her when carrying the heavy load down the 
mesa. She then visited the shrine at the base of the 
mother rock and tearing off a bit of her blanket deposited 
it in one of the tiny pits in the rock as an offering to the 
mother rock. When she drew near to the clay bed she 
indicated to Mr. Stevenson that he must remain behind, 
as men never approached the spot. Proceeding a short 
distance the party reached a point where Wewha re- 
quested the writer to remain perfectly quiet and not talk, 
saying : ' Should we talk, my pottery would crack in 
the baking, and unless I pray constantly the clay will not 
appear to me.' She applied the hoe vigorously to the 
hard soil, all the while murmuring prayers to Mother 
Earth. Nine-tenths of the clay was rejected, every lump 
being tested between the fingers as to its texture. After 
gathering about one hundred and fifty pounds in a blan- 
ket, which she carried on her back, with the ends of the 
blanket tied around her forehead, Wewha descended the 
steep mesa, apparently unconscious of the weight." 



CHAPTER XII 

THE RELIGION OF THE INDIANS 

In my nearly forty years' study of that which has been 
written upon the religion of the Indians of the Southwest, I 
have constantly had borne in upon me the widely divergent 
standpoints of the aborigines and those who presumed to 
judge and write about them. The misunderstandings are 
fundamental, basic, and can never be cleared away until 
the white man banishes his prejudices, and with an open 
and clear mind is ready to look upon the ideas of the 
Indian as the Indian himself sees them. Unfortunately 
in no field is this harder to accomplish than in the field 
of religion. Few men are able to view another's religion 
entirely and solely from that other's viewpoint. For in- 
stance, I have yet to find a white man who, at first sight, 
can believe that any reason can be given for the Indian's 
worship of, or reverence for, a rattlesnake. Yet from the 
Indian's standpoint it is most reasonable. Suppose an 
Indian is hunting for food for himself and. family. He 
has neither bow nor arrows, lance, slingshot or other 
weapon. He is without a trap. — I am presupposing an 
Indian before these things were invented. — He tries to 
steal upon his prey, but walk he never so gently his foot- 
steps are heard and the animal escapes. He is disap- 
pointed and disheartened, because he and his family must 
remain hungry. As he goes homeward, acutely conscious 
of his failure, he sees a snake gliding toward the same 
kind of creature he had tried to catch. Slowly, stealthily, 

195 



196 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

but surely, the snake approaches his prey, and then with 
a sudden dart, it is caught and devoured. 

What is the natural thought of the Indian? It is that 
the snake possesses a power he does not have. The snake 
eats, he and his are hungry, therefore, he worships that 
in the snake that gives it this important power in which 
he is deficient. 

Why should an Indian worship a bird? To the Indian 
it is the most natural thing in the world. He wants to 
cross a mighty canyon, but to do so, he must either peril 
his life by climbing down steep walls and then exhaust 
himself by climbing out again, or he must " go around." 
The bird soars in the air and in a few minutes crosses 
the abyss. The Indian must spend days in attaining it. 
Therefore, he prays to the bird or to the power that con- 
trols it, that it will give to him the superior power it 
possesses. 

The same with a fish. If man tries to plunge head 
first into the water he speedily suffocates — drowns. 
The fish lives in the water, hence has a power man does 
not possess. Therefore it is reasonable — to him — that 
he worship it. 

Here is another peculiarity of Indian thought which 
influences his religious acts. He finds the snake almost 
invariably (in the desert regions) wherever water exists. 
The white man reasons that the presence of the snake is 
accounted for by the existence of the water. The Indian 
reverses the process. The living power of the snake is 
greater than that of the water. He thinks it is the pres- 
ence of the snake that brings the water. Hence another 
reason for his veneration of the snake, and his fierce 
anger at the white man, who, with an entirely different 
view-point toward the snake, kills it as quickly as he can. 

In the chapter devoted to Indian Hunting I have pre- 



The Religion of the Indians 197 

sented the foregoing phases of the Indian's thought from 
another standpoint, which equally affects his religious be- 
lief and controls his ceremonies. 

These differences of view-point cannot be too strongly 
emphasized as they have caused many misunderstandings, 
some of which have produced consequences of a serious 
nature. Anything that keeps the races apart is serious 
and much to be deplored. 

Take, for instance, the white man's idea that nudity is 
obscene or at least unwise, and that any open recognition 
of sex relationship is decidedly indelicate and vulgar. 

In view of this belief the fact is understandable that 
to most white people, — even good, religious people, whose 
religion teaches them to think no evil, — the Indian's frank 
and totally unconscious nudity, his phallic worship, and 
his sex frankness are proofs positive of a degraded and 
debased mind; that he is unable to understand a high 
moral standpoint, and is a further proof of his need for 
the refining and purifying influences of our civilization 
and Christianity. Whereas the fact is that the Indian, be- 
fore he was corrupted by degenerates of the white race, 
was superior to it in sex morality and domestic chastity. 

What more simple than that the Indian, regarding sex 
as common to himself, the animals and birds, and desiring 
marriage and children, should make it a matter of re- 
Hgious devotion, — from his standpoint, — known as 
phallic worship. To him there is no self-consciousness, 
no embarrassment, no sense of shame in appealing to the 
supposed spirit or power dwelling in physical resem- 
blances to sex organs found in objects of nature. It is 
exactly the same, to his primitive mind, as appealing 
to the spirit residing in the sun, the fire, the water, or 
the fruit-tree. 

As the white man, however, imposed at least the out- 



198 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

ward observances of his code of morals, and secrecy, or 
reserve, upon the Indian, without, in the slightest, chang- 
ing his mental attitude, it came about, in time, that he 
kept his thoughts on these things to himself. Yet those 
who have been admitted to his intimate confidence know 
of the existence of definite ceremonials of pure phallicism, 
and of shrines where, to this day, youths and maidens 
openly and without shame or confusion (as far as their 
own people are concerned) go to pray for a life partner, 
who shall meet their highest marital ideals. Other 
shrines are for married women who pray for children, or 
for health, and many are the tiny fetiches and amulets, 
fashioned by nature, which they pick up, hoard, wear, 
and prize highly according to the degree in which their 
holders suppose them to be efficacious. 

Hence the whisperings, the hints, the suggestions, that 
now and again strike the ear or meet the eye of the dis- 
cerning among the white visitors to the Pueblos. Mys- 
teries surround the stranger on every hand. Here is 
good magic, there evil magic. This must not be seen, 
and that cannot be heard, so that the sensitive white per- 
son, in an Indian pueblo, moves in an atmosphere of con- 
stant expectation, alertness, or surprise. 

Many things that a white man cannot conceive as re- 
lated directly to religion have become most important to 
the Indian from that standpoint alone. Take their races 
and games or their weekly sweat-bath. Who could see 
anything religious in them ? Yet the medicine men have 
given them a distinctly religious significance. Why did 
our military leaders, during the early training days of the 
war, encourage our soldier boys to spend hours every day 
in playing games — the most strenuous, muscle-wrench- 
ing, daring, arduous games they could invent, devise or 
suggest? I saw them at our military camps running re- 



The Religion of the Indians 199 

lay races, jumping, wrestling, boxing, riding on each 
other's backs and imitating the old tournament sport of 
wrestling on horseback, urged to it with a fervour that 
the unthinking might not understand. Is it not apparent 
that it was to strengthen the muscles, bring up the whole 
physical tone, and at the same time make them indifferent 
to pain ? — it's all in the game. 

There is yet another idea connected with these mili- 
tary sports. Playing thus together in strenuous games 
that test all there is of a man's physical powers, as well 
as quickening his intellect, develops an esprit de corps, 
a camaraderie, a binding together, a pride in each other 
that stands an army in good stead when it comes to mak- 
ing charges, or doing other things that require courage, 
daring and skilful team-work. Our military leaders 
used their elementary knowledge of psychology to good 
effect, but the Indians of New Mexico had put it into 
practice centuries ago. 

Instead, however, of making the motif for his physical 
and mental training a patriotic one, the Indian shaman 
went a step further and made it a religious one. His peo- 
ple were no longer nomads. They had settled down and 
had begun to accumulate those desirable things that the 
nomads coveted. 

These Apaches, Navahos, and other nomads were 
numerous and were bent on pillage at every oppor- 
tunity. The pueblos had their homes on mesa heights, 
reached only by the scaling of precipitous walls. Their 
corn-fields were in the valleys, often miles away. What 
were they to do when their enemies swept down upon 
them? Fight? They were not numerous enough, and 
fighting was to be indulged in only as a last resort. 
Far better to flee, to rush up the trails with such speed 
that their enemies could not catch them, and then, 



200 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

secure in their almost inaccessible heights, which were 
easily defended, bid defiance to those who would have 
injured them. To do this, however, they must be physi- 
cally strong, ever in the best of training and alert, and 
to keep them so the games, sports, races were devised and 
made religious ceremonies. It was " the will of the 
gods " that they should do these things. " Those Above 
had commanded it ! " 

Thus mere physical exercises, games, and the like came 
to have a profound religious significance. 

The same with the sweat-bath : Living an arduous 
life, often sweating profusely, sleeping on the ground 
and thus constantly in contact with dirt, their habits of 
life were such as to make it impossible to keep their 
clothes clean. Hence they could not have been guided, 
in this year of our Lord, 1919, to a wiser, more practical 
method of keeping their bodies healthful than by their 
sweat-bath. In reality this is a combination of hot air 
and steam. It is generally taken in a covered structure 
which keeps out the cold air. Seated in a nude condition, 
an attendant places red-hot rocks within the sweat-house. 
This is repeated several times until the bathers are sweat- 
ing profusely. Then more hot rocks are brought over 
which water is poured. This immediately rises as steam 
and the bathers remain in this until the bath is complete, 
when they rub down with mud, rinse off in clean water, 
and then lie exposed to the direct rays of the sun. It is 
a most stimulating and invigorating treatment for white 
people as well as Indians, and, keeping the pores in good 
condition, conduces largely to health. 

To compel acquiescence in this custom the early day 
shamans made of it a religious ceremonial, and to this 
day it is pretty rigidly observed throughout the South- 
west. 



The Religion of the Indians 201 



The Indian of to-day is the child of the human race. 
In his mental operations we see how the minds of the 
more cultivated races worked when they were first emerg- 
ing out of animalism. In their thoughts, therefore, we 
may see those which — it is not unreasonable to assume 
— used to occupy the minds of our own ancestors. 

Undoubtedly the first thought that impressed the In- 
dian was the great power of Nature that surroimded him, 
limited him, mothered him, soothed him, nourished him, 
and yet that, at times, famished him, scourged him with 
thunders, lightnings, sun-stroke, sandstorms, disease, and 
death. Unconsciously he became a Nature worshiper, 
and personified all the powers that he saw, felt or imag- 
ined. Here, then, we have the basis, the beginning, of 
many aboriginal ideas of religion, scores of which persist 
to this day, and evidences of which are manifested in their 
ceremonials, prayers, dances and songs. 

We find throughout the Southwest this — what might 
be termed — Nature-worship ever prevalent. What 
more simple than that when the world around them 
seemed to be unkind, cruel, harsh, they should deem the 
rain, the storm, the lightning, the famine as an expres- 
sion of the anger of some Power, strange, mysterious, 
hidden, that they must seek to propitiate ? Even the dog 
fawns upon the hand that whips it, and the tiger, most 
cruel of beasts, cringes before any one that shows mas- 
tery, hence why should not primitive man fawn and 
cringe, and, as soon as he had language, make prayers 
and petitions to the unknown and mysterious Powers that 
visited these unwelcome and painful punishments upon 
him? 

Next, perhaps, came the personification of the powers 
of Nature, and, as some of them were good at some 
times and evil at others, most of them were worshiped 



202 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

as dual personalities, the one to be petitioned for good, 
and the other to be propitiated, to be blinded, to be mis- 
directed — anything to avert his attention so that he could 
visit no actual evil upon those who prayed. Here, then, 
is the ground- work for the creation of a pantheon of 
gods, big and little, powerful and less powerful, as wide 
and extensive as the imagination of the awakened ob- 
server could conceive. The result is seen in the stupen- 
dous number of divinities, greater and lesser, invented, 
created, imagined by the Indians of this region, whether 
Pueblos or nomads. There are those who laugh to scorn 
the statement that these divinities are greater in number 
than the combined pantheons of ancient Greece and Rome. 
Yet every deep student of the Indians of the Southwest 
knows that the statement is one of coldest fact, rather 
than of wild exaggeration. 

Another thing about these divinities must be observed. 
Reasoning, doubtless, from the fact that mankind was 
dual, — male and female, — the Indian sexualized every 
divinity and every manifestation that had led him to sup- 
pose there was a divinity connected with it. Hence the 
North was the male part of the earth, for from it came 
the cold, stern winds, storm, rains. The South was femi- 
nine, because from it came the warm, fructifying, mother- 
ing winds, rains and other influences. The clouds were 
male and female, those which gave forth vivifying rains 
being the latter, and those accompanying harsh, stern 
winds and bad weather being masculine. 

The sun was the father, and the earth the mother, the 
lightning being the means of communication and the 
rains the life-giving fluid. 

In due time the Indian observed that these divinities 
operated uncertainly — as it were. There was no assur- 
ance that the rains would come at the time they generally 



The Religion of the Indians 203 

came. Such could be only the result of the caprice, the 
whim, of the gods, or because they were angry. Light- 
ning sometimes struck the noblest man, or most beauti- 
ful woman, or the dearest child of the tribe. Caprice, 
whim, anger! 

Then men arose among them who asserted they had 
power to change this caprice, alter the whim, deflect the 
anger. They had discovered some simple fact or law 
unknown to their fellows. They were able by some mys- 
tic power within themselves to create " good " medicine 
and to dispel " bad " medicine. From this sprang up a 
world of ceremonials that fairly bewilder and astound 
the white man when he realizes their number, their lengthy 
duration and their characteristics. When we speak of 
the white race, of any nation as being religious, if by that 
we refer to their ritualistic manifestations in ceremonial 
and outward worship, they are not in the same class with 
most of the Indians of the Southwest. The pueblo of 
Zuni, for instance, has a number of religious ceremonials 
in the winter and an equal number in the summer, that 
amaze the ordinary white man. Some of these are be- 
ginning now to attract large numbers of visitors, and one 
of them will be found described in the chapter dealing 
with Zuni. So with all the Pueblos. But even the 
nomad Navahos have their wealth of ceremonies, in the 
performance of some of which, even yet, white people, 
who are not informed, refuse to believe. 

Merely to give the uninitiated a faint idea of these 
ceremonials and the length of time required to perform 
them, here is presented a list of Zuni brotherhoods and 
their ceremonials, with a suggestion as to the beneficial 
results they are expected to secure. One could write a 
large book describing the origin of these brotherhoods 
or " esoteric fraternities," as Mrs. Stevenson terms them. 



204 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

The oldest fraternity is the Shiwannakwe, whose 
duties are to pray, sing and dance for rain. The mem- 
bership of this society, — as are they all — was originally 
formed by the " Divine Ones," and dances, songs, and 
esoteric ceremonials, — which are known to none other of 
the tribe save the initiated — were communicated by them 
and are supposed to be most potent in producing the 
fructifying (or female) rain. 

The next to be organized by the " Divine Ones " was 
the Newekwc, and ultimately these and the first organized 
(the Shiwannakwe) were instructed in all the songs and 
secrets of the Mystery Medicine. The next fraternity 
was the Saniakiakzve, or Hunters, those who have charge 
over the hunting as explained in the chapter devoted to 
that subject. 

Then came the Hlannakwe , the Great Fire Fraternity, 
the members of which can eat large coals of fire, and 
a few of whom were initiated into the mysteries of sword 
swallowing — at which they are great adepts to this day. 
These latter soon developed into an organization of their 
own — the Hlewekwe — and they possess wonderful 
mystery medicine. 

Then another fraternity was organized of those who 
were taught to play with, and control, fire, but not to 
eat it, and they were called the Uhiihukwe. 

Next came the Halokwe (sometimes called the Achiya 
or Stone Knife) fraternity, who were initiated into the 
divine secrets of healing disease caused by the angry 
ants (skin diseases) and those caused by the witchcraft 
of men. Think of the mental processes that attribute all 
skin diseases to angry ants! 

The explanation they give of their alternative name 
of " Stone Knife " is that a stone knife once descended 
from " Those Above " into their ceremonial chamber, 



The Religion of the Indians 205 

clearly indicating that a fraternity that used this knife 
in its initiations should be organized. 

All these fraternities were initiated into the use of 
tablet altars, with all their complicated phenomena, and 
the sand, or dry, paintings. 

These sand-paintings (or mosaics, perhaps, is the bet- 
ter term) are made in a most skilful and artistic manner 
by the artist priests of the different fraternities. Each 
has its own designs and their corresponding symbolism, 
which, for an outsider to understand, is a task for many 
months, even with such information as has already been 
gained by such investigators as Gushing, Fewkes, Steven- 
son, Hodge and others. And, of course, only those es- 
pecially trusted and favoured by the priests could ever 
hope to gain the least inkling of these ceremonials, or 
be allowed to see the altars, sand-paintings, fetiches, and 
other sacred appliances used therein. Many a bold and 
self -appreciative visitor to the Pueblos — Zuni and else- 
where — has found his conceit and confidence speedily 
evaporating in the presence of the stern dignity of the 
priests who could neither be bought, cajoled or intimi- 
dated to allow even these self-important personages to 
witness their sacred mysteries. 

One of the later and important fraternities is said to 
have originated by the appearance of one of the " Divine 
Ones," with his warriors, at the home of a member of 
the Poyikwe (Chaparral Cock) Clan. Hitherto a god 
had never appeared before a human without his mask, but 
on this occasion his features were clearly seen. He told 
that they had come from the underworld, but were go- 
ing to stay for a short time at Chipia (a place near by). 

Trembling with excitement the man so honoured by 
the god, informed the Sun Priest early the next morn- 
ing, and this led this officer to go to Chipia to interview 



206 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

the Divine One. He then invited the god, with his five 
divine associates, to visit Halona (one of the villages 
of Zuni), which they did, wearing their masks. At this 
time they taught the man they had first visited all the 
secrets of their mystery medicine, with its potent for the 
cure of all convulsions and cramps in the limbs, and also 
the accompanying songs which came direct from the 
lips of the Sun Father. This fraternity is the Shu- 
maakwe. On this visit (it must be noted) the gods left 
their masks, which are used in the ceremonials to this 
day by those priests who personate the visiting divini- 
ties. 

The Great Fire Fraternity has power to heal swellings 
in the throat, body or limbs. The initiates were taught 
by the three gods, who left their masks for future use. 

In addition there is the Little Fire Fraternity (Matke 
Sannakwe) , the Rattlesnake, Cactus, Mythologic, Games 
(Showekwe) , and Struck-by-Lightning fraternities. 

One of the most powerful of all the fraternities is that 
of the Order of the Sacred Bow. This was organized 
by the Gods of War, and is to-day the most powerful of 
all Zuni organizations. It is the one to which Lieut. 
Frank H. Gushing succeeded in gaining admisson, and 
which led to his speedily gaining the marvelous intimacy 
with their secret customs, ceremonials and myths, which, 
so entrancingly, he gave to the world. It was long pre- 
sided over by Naiuchi, that strong, inflexible, incorrupt- 
ible Indian, a true leader, statesman, philospher and 
friend, who was the strangest mixture of modern wisdom 
and ancient, deep-rooted superstition. 

While I have thus barely enumerated the fraternities 
of the Zunis, I have given but the merest suggestion of a 
glimpse at the complicated mythology they incorporate, 
the tradition and history they enshrine, the origin and 




PAHOS, OR PRAYER STICKS. 



The Religion of the Indians 207 



beauty of their songs, and the infinite variety of their 
dances and ceremonials. Of their masks alone one might 
write enough to fill a book as large as this, and, simply 
to describe, in ordinary newspaper-reporter fashion, their 
open air ceremonials would fill another. 

Then, what about their altars, their various fetiches 
— not connected with hunting, — of their mili — which, 
to each organization, is as important and sacred as is 
the Cross to the Christians, — their clowns or Delight- 
makers (as Bandelier so appropriately called them) ? 

Then the symbolism connected with it all — who can 
absorb it, or realize it? Everything is symbolized. 
Soap-suds are made in a bowl of water to represent snow- 
clouds, while the priest prays for cold rains and snows. 
Downy feathers from the eagle's breast are used by the 
scores of thousands in their prayers to symbolize that, as 
the eagle soars (by means of these feathers), into the 
very eye of the Sun, so may their prayers ascend to the 
secret precincts of the Divine Ones — Those Above. 

Upon the symbolism of pollen, alone, one might write 
a volume. The ritual of these people calls for the pollen 
of a score, a hundred, several hundred, varieties of plants 
and flowers; and it is not enough merely to have this 
pollen. It must be gathered at such and such a time, un- 
der such and such favourable conditions. The pollen is 
the essential fructifier of the flower or fruit or grain. 
Without it there is no increase. It is the symbol, there- 
fore, of all fructification, and is used everywhere and 
at all times in Pueblo, Navaho and Apache ceremo- 
nials. 

Symbolism plays a large part in the Indian's prayers. 
He never prays but he first of all plants around himself, 
or on his altar, or before his shrine, a number of feath- 
ered sticks, called pahos. As the birds that wear the 



208 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

feathers soar to the highest heavens, so may their petitions 
be feathered and winged to the ears of the gods. 

At puberty the Hopi maidens are required to dress up 
their hair in imitation of the squash blossom. This is 
their symbol of maidenhood and purity, and the very 
fact that the hair is dressed in this fashion aids in bring- 
ing the pure thoughts into the maiden's mind that the 
blossom symbolizes. Still further, the Indian believes 
that the symbol afifects the thing symbolized. Gushing 
refers to this fact in connection with the Zuni pottery- 
maker. One of the forms given to water bottles is that 
of the female breasts. During the manipulation of the 
clay a tiny opening is kept in the nipples, lest the closing of 
them should forever dry up the maternal fount of the 
pottery-maker, and thus — by natural inference — pre- 
vent her enjoying the blessings of maternity. To the 
maiden, yet unmarried, this would be a calamity un- 
speakable, as every Zuni man looks for, expects and 
eagerly desires children, and therefore, this would render 
her as a married woman less desirable to her husband. 

Yet, it is evident, the holes in the nipples cannot be al- 
lowed to remain in the water bottle. Before it is com- 
pleted they must be closed. When the vessel is prac- 
tically finished the potter prepares a small pellet of clay, 
turns away her head, begins to talk, sing, or pray, and 
thus, while distracting the attention of the divinity that 
controls the clay, perhaps resides in it, she closes up the 
apertures. 

I found the same idea — the symbol affecting the thing 
symbolized — among the Navahos. Long ago I learned 
that the design of their so-called wedding-basket, repre- 
sented the mountains and valleys of the upper world, the 
mountains and valleys of the lozver or under world, and 
the red earth between. In all these baskets there is an 



The Religion of the Indians 209 

opening from the lower to the upper world. One day- 
it was explained to me by a Shaman that all unborn spirits 
dwelt in the under world, and that when a child was born, 
the parents gave to it its body, but the spirit came to it 
through this opening, — representing Shi-pa-pu — and 
joined the body in some unseen and mysterious fashion. 
Having had some experiences in testing the idea above 
formulated and wishing to experiment further, I deter- 
mined to endeavour to bribe an Indian weaver to make 
me a wedding basket which, while in every other respect, 
of the conventional design, should leave out the " Shipapu 
opening." 

In those days the practical value of one of these baskets 
on the Navaho reservation was about $4. I had al- 
ready convinced myself that her reasoning would be that 
if she were to make me a basket, leaving out that open- 
ing, she conceived that this would make it impossible, 
should she again become a mother, for her child to have 
a soul. It was her real belief in this idea that I now 
wished to test. Accordingly I asked her to make me the 
basket, leaving out the opening, and offered her $8 in- 
stead of $4, laying out bright new silver dollars before 
her to enforce my request. With a curt shake of the 
head she refused, and paid no attention to my urging. 
Opening my buckskin purse I took out another $8, and 
spread them out temptingly before her, only to receive 
the same curt refusal. And I doubled the amount again, 
making it $32, and then yet again, making it $64, and 
still again, making it $128, and finally spread out the 
whole of the $300 with which I had provided myself be- 
fore I left home for the purpose. But, while she eyed 
the money longingly and tears came into her eyes as she 
spoke, she positively refused my request, saying that she 
daren't thus oppose the will of the gods. 



210 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

To the untrained Protestant the symbolic ritual of the 
Catholic Church is complex and difficult to understand, 
yet an intelligent person can grasp its significance within 
a very short time. Half a lifetime is required ere one 
grasps the full significance of Pueblo and other Indian 
symbolism. 

To return now to the fraternities. Each of them has 
its own ceremonies which last from four to nine days, at 
the winter and summer solstices, or on special occasions 
when the wealthy sick desire that they be initiated on their 
behalf. 

A book might be written upon the etiquette observed 
at all the ceremonies. We talk of the ceremoniousness of 
the Japanese and other orientals. They can learn of our 
Pueblo Indians. For instance, here is one paragraph 
from Mrs. Stevenson's monograph, which barely hints at 
the scope of this interesting subject : 

" The high-necked and long-sleeved cotton garment is 
discarded by the women for ceremonials, and their necks 
and arms are bare. Men wear their cotton shirts and 
trousers in the ceremonial chamber, but afterward dis- 
card them, wearing, except on rare occasions, only a 
woven breechcloth in the dances. The moccasins of both 
sexes are always removed on entering the chamber. The 
strictest etiquette is observed in these ceremonials. No 
one enters the chamber without giving and receiving a 
greeting of welcome, the newcomer being asked to be 
seated. No one is allowed to fall asleep in the ceremonial 
chamber except such members as are held almost sacred 
on account of their extreme age. The offender is at 
once touched in no gentle manner by some member. 
Pregnant women and young children are held as severely 
to account as the others. After the close of the ceremo- 
nial the head of each member is washed in yucca suds. 



The Religion of the Indians 211 

Continence is observed during the ceremonials and the 
four days following, for all carnal thoughts must be dis- 
pensed with at this season." 

Every fraternity has its own cycle of songs. No white 
person has yet even made the attempt to gather all these 
songs, yet their sweet poetic beauty, and the enshrined 
mythology, history, tradition and legend, are attested by 
the few specimens presented in the chapter on music. 

Naturally, it is to the priesthood of these esoteric fra- 
ternities that the Indian looks for protection from all evil 
and the calling upon him of all good. In these priest- 
hoods we find the " Shamans," the medicine-men, in 
whom every Indian pins his faith. Occasionally, how- 
ever, a man is found who possesses extraordinary power. 
He has been able to heal some dangerously sick man, or 
bring a well-known woman of influence — for the Indians 
know the steps and stages of caste and influence, even as 
we do — through a dangerous child-birth. Then, even 
as with ourselves, every one flocks to him. His " medi- 
cine " is powerful for good, and is unceasingly called for. 
There is a converse side, however, to this popularity. It 
is almost a natural outcome, that when things go severely 
wrong with any one, or anything, it is owing to " bad 
medicine." As no medicine man would be so foolish 
as to indulge in the practice of creating or making bad 
medicine, except for purposes of revenge, or to gratify 
some evil desire, the evil magic-maker becomes known as 
a wizard or witch, to be feared and shunned, and if pos- 
sible to be punished and slain. I have been present at 
half a dozen or more trials for witchcraft in New Mexico, 
and personally know those who have been cruelly whipped 
and hung up by the thumbs until they were almost dead, 
because of their alleged evil practices along this line. 
(See the chapter devoted to this subject.) 



212 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

This same difficulty of compelling the powers of Na- 
ture always to do the desired and desirable things — from 
the Indians' standpoint — makes the position of the priest 
of any one of the Clans no sinecure. 

These men are expected to be not only pure and clean 
in body, but also in heart, and any failure of the Clan 
ceremonies to produce the required and expected results is 
sure to lead to the censure or even expulsion of the priest 
from his office. For instance, in the clan of the Ashi- 
zvanni, or Rain Priesthood of the Zunis, the priest of the 
Zenith, some years ago, was denounced because of the 
droughts and consequent failure of crops. He was im- 
peached, and after long days and nights of consultation 
was removed, and a young man selected to fill his place. 
When the messenger arrived at the youth's home, though 
he was personally anxious to accept the honoured posi- 
tion, his mother wept so bitterly about it, fearful lest he 
should be accused of being wicked or a witch, if the rains 
failed to come and the crops failed for a season, that he 
refused to accept. 

Then, asks the white, skeptical outsider, who, natu- 
rally, laughs at all the pretentions to power of the Sha- 
mans, what becomes of a medicine man when he loses 
his popularity or his power? 

With the Indian, as well as with ourselves, wit, wisdom, 
or even craft and cunning, play their part. If your son 
dies under the hand of an eminent physician you do not 
lose faith in him if he can convince you that the death was 
inevitable, or that he did more than any one else could 
have done under the circumstances. 

Many a great surgeon has performed a " successful " 
operation, even though the patient has died, and the sor- 
rowing relatives have been contented, and have increased 
their reverence for the wonderfully competent surgeon 



The Religion of the Indians 213 

who performed so marvelously successful an operation 
upon their loved one. 

Now, does the simple-minded white man assume for 
one moment that an Indian cannot play this game as well 
as he ? He may think again, and more wisely. The In- 
dian thaumaturgist is just as adept as — and often more 
so than — his white brother, in all the arts of " covering 
up " the failures of his wonder-working. 

Yet I would not say he was a humbug, a fraud, any 
more than I would say of the successfully operating 
surgeon (whose patient died), that he was a humbug, a 
fraud, or that the practicing physician who continues, 
year after year, to treat and take the money of a rich 
patient without curing him, was a humbug, a fraud. 
Human nature is much the same, for, as has already been 
stated, the Indian's mind is the child mind of the race, 
and the children are often more crafty and cunning (in 
some ways) than their elders. 

To return, now, to the divinities or powers. To retain 
the good will of the beneficent powers, and control or 
propitiate those that are hostile, another method sprang 
into existence. This is known to us as the taboo. It con- 
sists in the strict observance of a great number of pre- 
scriptions. One must eat only certain foods at certain 
times, and never of the animal from which their family 
name was taken. Hence among the Zunis there are those 
who may never, under any circumstances, eat of the flesh 
of the badger, bear, coyote, sandhill-crane, frog, road- 
runner, turkey, deer or antelope. To many Indians all 
hog meat is taboo. To the Navahos fish, ducks, snake 
and rabbit are all taboo, and Matthews tells of a white 
woman, at Fort Defiance, who, for mischief, emptied a 
pan of water in which fish had been soaking over a 
young Navaho. He changed all his clothes, put them to 



214 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

soak, and then many times bathed himself before he felt 
fully purified. Another Navaho taboo is the sight of 
a man's mother-in-law, and many an amusing sight has 
been afforded a visitor — who had been put wise — when 
an attempt was made to bring son and mother-in-law to- 
gether. 

The Navahos also taboo a hogan (or house) in which 
a death has occurred. It is either fired or allowed 
to go to ruin, and twenty-five years ago there were hun- 
dreds of these homes which death had compelled the 
families to abandon. Neither will a Navaho, though it 
be the coldest-below-zero weather, and no other wood is 
available, touch a piece of wood from one of these 
death-cursed hogans, and should the white man, disre- 
garding the taboo, build his fire of it, he will refuse to 
eat or drink anything cooked on the fire, and will re- 
move himself as far as possible from its heat and light. 

Until commercialism crept in, and the traders among 
the Indians became careless of their religious ideas by 
contact with the whites, there were certain colours that 
were taboo, and one never saw them used in any kind of 
an Indian made blanket, robe, sash, or garter. 

In certain Zuni ceremonies there are taboos against 
sweeping out the house for a certain period, and no arti- 
ficial light must be made, not even that of a burning 
cigarette, and page after page might be written merely 
enumerating the various taboos. 

Another mode of influencing the gods was by fasting 
and continence. Few white men know to what extent the 
Indians fast. Sometimes a fast will be merely an absten- 
tion from animal food, or grease, or corn, and again the 
fast will be absolute, lasting for from one to nine days, 
according to the object to be attained. 

Every child is taught to fast, and I have heard children 




MANUELITO, THE LAST GREAT NAVAHO CHIEF. 



The Religion of the Indians 215 

of four and five years of age challenged to a day's, two 
days', three, four and even five days', fast, by an uncle 
or elder cousin, and have watched the youngster after 
he had accepted. Nothing could tempt him to eat (or 
drink, if drinking was also included). 

There is another phase to this fasting which should 
not be overlooked. Many a time food is scarce with 
the Indians and it is good for them to know that fasting, 
if not too long continued, will not seriously harm them. 
Again, often in their long journeys, accidents, storms, 
cloud-bursts or other adverse conditions delay them, or in 
some way deprive them of food. Their fasting has 
taught them that even though they do not eat for a 
week, two weeks, or even three weeks, no serious con- 
sequences will ensue. I have been with them under 
these conditions and I can aver with truth that I have 
never even heard a complaint, except, perhaps, some 
whimsical or humorous comment, upon the absence of 
their wanted food. 

In many ceremonies fasting is enjoined for from four 
to nine days, and the fasters dance and sing, day and 
night, with an energy that seems tireless, so that no out- 
sider would ever dream that they were being deprived of 
their usual sustenance. 

Continence is also demanded under many circum- 
stances, lasting for days or even months at a time, and 
dire, indeed, are the consequences, if a man or woman 
fails in this regard. 

As has already been stated, the healing of disease and 
securing protection from its ravages are sought from 
the Superior Powers by the intervention of the shaman. 
Invocations, incantations, dances, songs, are performed 
for days at a time with these purposes in view. Disease is 
supposedly caused in two ways ; either by the presence of 



216 New Mexico, Iiand of Delight Makers 

some foreign object in the body, or by the absence of 
the spirit from its body. 

Again and again have I been present when a shaman 
has announced that the disease from which a patient was 
suffering was some living creature in the body of the 
patient, which would produce death unless removed. A 
man had sciatic pains ; the shaman came, and, after 
sucking the body of the patient, took a lizard from his 
mouth, which, of course, was proof positive that it was 
the cause of the trouble. Here are other cases : A preg- 
nant woman suffering from severe pains on the right 
side of her abdomen had two worms taken from the spot. 
The shaman assured her the worms would have eaten the 
child and caused its death. An old man had rheumatic 
pains in his back. A frog was taken out by sucking. 
Horned toads, pieces of stone and wood, yards of yarn, 
bits of old cloth, etc., have been taken out (!) in my pres- 
ence, the shaman making great pretense at times that he 
was finding it exceedingly difficult to get the object re- 
leased. He generally takes it from his mouth into his 
clenched hand and then resolutely throws it away, or 
casts it into the fire. 

On one occasion a shaman showed me an old feather 
duster which had been given to him on one of his visits 
to a white settlement. He assured me, with sundry 
chuckles, that when his patients suffered from any form 
of stomach or intestinal trouble he made them close their 
eyes, open their mouths and swallow the duster — stick, 
feathers and all — and as it came through the body it 
swept away all the evil that was causing their trouble. 

It must not be assumed, however, from this frank 
avowal of the humbug and deliberate deceit connected 
with some of their proceedings, that everything they do 
is of this character. To come to this conclusion would 



The Religion of the Indians 217 

be unjust and contrary to fact. Some of the shamans 
have considerable skill as bone-setters. They are natural 
surgeons. They also know how to manipulate the mus- 
cles, bones, etc., in a rude and primitive massage and 
osteopathy that often relieves pain. They have a wide 
knowledge of the properties of many plants, flowers, 
shrubs and herbs, which they use to good advantage, 
though here, it must be confessed, their practice often is 
empirical, often not justified by experience, and befogged 
by their rude analogies and symbolism. For instance, 
they assume that because the milk weed exudes a milk- 
like secretion, it must be good as a medicine for a nursing 
mother. This kind of symbolism meets one on every 
hand. 

Of course in dealing with the absence of a sick person's 
soul from his body that can be healed only by dances, 
songs, smokes, prayers, incantations and mystery rites. 
This is a vast subject, far too vast for treatment here, 
and those interested in it must make a special study of it. 

Shamanism is ofttimes gained by acquiring the 
power of one of the divinities — for good or evil — by 
securing him as a personal protector. This was no small 
task, and he who would gain such power must be brave 
and self-denying. While the following was written by 
Jeremiah Curtin in his Creation Myths of Primitive 
America, of certain California tribes, it applies, almost 
exactly, to the procedure of the Indians of the South- 
west. 

" The most important question of all in Indian life was 
communication with divinity, intercourse with the spirit 
of divine personages. No man could communicate with 
these unless the man to whom they chose to manifest 
themselves. There were certain things which a man had 
to do to obtain communication with divinity and receive 



218 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

a promise of assistance ; but it was only the elect, the right 
person, the fit one, who obtained the desired favour. For 
instance, twenty men might go to the mountain place, 
and observe every rule carefully, but only one man be 
favoured with a vision, only one become a seer. Twenty 
others might go to the mountain place, and not one be ac- 
counted worthy to behold a spirit; a third twenty might 
go, and two or three of them be chosen. No man could 
tell beforehand what success or failure might await him. 
The general method at present is the following, the same 
as in the old time : — 

" Soon after puberty, and in every case before marriage 
or acquaintance with woman, the youth or young man 
who hopes to become a doctor goes to a sacred mountain 
pond or spring, where he drinks water and bathes. After 
he has bathed and dressed, he speaks to the spirits, he 
prays them to come to him, to give him knowledge, to 
grant their assistance. The young man takes no food, 
no nourishment of any sort, fasts, as he is able, seven 
days and nights, sometimes longer. All this time he is 
allowed no drink except water. He sleeps as little as 
possible. If spirits come to him, he has visions, he re- 
ceives power and favour. A number of spirits may visit 
a man one after another, and promise him aid and co- 
operation. The eagle spirit may come, the spirit of the 
elk or the salmon, — any spirit that likes the man. The 
spirit says in substance, ' Whenever you call my name I 
will come, I will give my power to assist you.' After 
one spirit has gone, another may appear, and another. A 
man is not free to refuse the offers of spirits, he must 
receive all those who come to him. As there are peculiar 
observances connected with each spirit, the doctor who 
is assisted by many is hampered much in his method of 
living. There are spirits which do not like buckskin; 



The Religion of the Indians 219 

the man to whom they come must never wear buckskin. 
If a man eats food repugnant to his spirit, the spirit will 
kill him. As each spirit has its favourite food, and there 
are other kinds which to it are distasteful, we can un- 
derstand easily that the doctor who has ten spirits or 
twenty (and there are some who have thirty) to aid 
him is limited in his manner of living. Greatness has its 
price at all times ; power must be paid for in every place. 
Those for whom the spirits have no regard, and they 
are the majority, return home without visions or hope 
of assistance ; the spirits are able to look through all per- 
sons directly, and straightway they se^ what a man is. 
They find most people unsuited to their purposes, unfit 
to be assisted." 

This chapter must not be regarded, by any means, as 
a complete exposition of the religion of the Indians. I 
have sought merely to give some of the leading and 
striking features that those who have never investigated 
the subject may see that there is far more to the beliefs 
of our brother with the dark skin than is generally be- 
lieved. 



CHAPTER XIII 

INDIAN SONGS AND MUSIC 

There is one thing possessed by our Indians that, 
so far, our Americanism and our civiHzation have been 
unable to touch. That is their real, pure, old-fashioned 
music. Tradition, custom, superstition, even fear, have 
all worked together to preserve these ancient songs in 
their purity so that their aboriginal origin and character 
are unquestioned. 

Most white people hold the idea that Indians have no 
music; that their songs are nothing but a succession of 
grunts, shrieks, yells, howls and infernal noises. Among 
those, however, who have " awakened their senses that 
they may the better judge," this popular notion is known 
to be a most egregious error. The Pueblos have a clearly 
defined sense of rhythm, of melody, of emphasis and suit- 
abihty of their music to the subject. 

While there are several musical writers who have 
undertaken to present Indian music for white consump- 
tion, it must be confessed that most of it bears little re- 
semblance to the original, being rather a highly individ- 
ualized form of modern music, merely carrying a sug- 
gestion of the Indians' themes or motifs. 

There are three writers, however, who have done most 
faithful, true and successful renditions of Pueblo and 
other Indian music, both as to the accurate writing down 
of the melodies and in the manufacture of suitable har- 
monies. It should not be overlooked by the general 

220 



Indian Songs and Music 221 

reader that the Indians' music is all melodic. He knows 
nothing whatever of harmony. Hence all harmonized 
compositions that purport to be Indian are Indian only 
as to melody, the harmonies being the white man's idea 
as to what the Indians' harmonies would be, did he make 
them. 

Here, then, is great room for discussion and variation 
of opinion, and it appears to be reasonable to assume that 
only those who have long dwelt with, or at least long and 
carefully listened to, the songs of the Indians can be 
competent to attempt their harmonization. For instance, 
while none can question the charm and exquisite beauty of 
McDowell's Indian music, and its peculiar qualities that 
might truthfully suggest the Indians' vocalization, it can 
only be regarded by the fully informed as a highly in- 
dividualized form of our own type of music. 

The three writers to- whom especially I wish to refer 
are Natalie Curtis Burlin, Carlos Troyer, and Thurlow 
Lieurance, and here is what the two former have said 
of their own harmonizations of the Indians' songs. 
Natalie Curtis says of certain corn-grinding songs : 

In making accompaniments to these songs, I have in nowise 
changed the melodies, nor have I sought to harmonize them in the 
usual sense, nor to make of them musical compositions. I have 
merely tried to reproduce the actual sound of the grinding, and to 
add enough harmony to give, as it were, a background to the pic- 
ture. The millstone forms, indeed, a crude native accompaniment to 
every grinding-song, and without a suggestion of it the true char- 
acter of the song would be lost. In the choice of harmony, I 
have been governed alone by the character of Indian music, dis- 
regarding all thought of prescribed harmonic progressions. My one 
desire has been to let the Indian songs be heard as the Indians 
themselves sing them. Let the hearer imagine that he stands in 
some odd corner of the Indian village, beneath the dazzling sky, 
with the silence of the desert about him. Suddenly, from the upper 
story of some terraced house, comes the sound of a clear voice 
yodeling in graceful melody. It is accompanied by the high, scrap- 



222 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

ing noise of the grinding-stone with its ceaseless monotony of 
rhythm. Out on the thin, clear atmosphere float the strange sounds 
— out into the desert stillness. 

Of his " Great Rain Dance of the Zunis " Carlos 
Troyer says: 

The greatest care and attention has been exercised to preserve 
the true and simple outline of the melody, and in harmonizing 
it, to follow the natural impression their support of crude in- 
struments would convey, and to render their expressions and senti- 
ments as descriptive and realistic as possible. So simple, true, 
and brave a people, so dignified and refined in manner and action, 
require no fanciful embellishment or ornamentation to their sing- 
ing nor their instrumental music ! 

In his American Indian Melodies, though none of these 
are songs of the Indians of New Mexico, Arthur Farwell 
refers to some harmonizations created by Professor John 
Comfort Fillmore. He says: 

These harmonies have been determined hardly by the Indian's 

preference, but more particularly by the tonal structure of the 

melodies themselves, of which Professor Fillmore made a deep 
and scientific study. 

Then he proceeds to set forth the considerations that 
affected him in the creation of his own harmonizations 
of the Indians' melodies, as follows : 

It struck the writer, however, that a heightened art-value could 
be imparted to them, if the composer should consult, not merely this 
melodic structure, but the poetic nature of the particular legend or 
incident of which each song was the outcome. For it must be un- 
derstood that these songs are entirely dependent upon mythical or 
legendary occurrences, which they qualify or interpret, or upon 
religious ceremonies of which they form a part. The writer 
realized that if the musical imagination could be fired by a con- 
sideration of the particular legend pertaining to a song, it would 
give rise to a combination of harmonies far more vitally con- 
nected with the song's essence, its spiritual significance, than any 
which should be the outcome of a mere consideration of the 
melodies' tonal structure. 



Indian Son^s and Music 223 

When the question was raised as to whether, after all, 
the sole value of these Indian melodies to the white mind 
was not owing to its harmonic treatment, Farwell em- 
phatically answered with an unqualified and almost im- 
patient " No ! " For, says he. 

The harmonic colour-scheme is purely the outcome of the melody 
and its specific religious significance, and is merely an aid to its more 
complete expression. Without this significance, the melody would 
never have been born ; without the melody, the harmonic combina- 
tion (the joint result of the significance and the melody) would 
never have been born ; and this significance and melody is the 
Indian's. The final result is the consequence of a trained intellect 
seizing upon, and expressing in a mode comprehensible to its kind, a 
feeling already fully developed in a race whose mode of expression 
is more primitive, or perhaps merely different. 

There are a few important points about the songs of 
the Indians that should not be overlooked. As Natalie 
Curtis truthfully says : 

Wellnigh impossible is it for civilized man to conceive of the 
importance of song in the life of the Indian. To the Indian, song 
is the breath of the spirit that consecrates the acts of life. Not all 
songs are religious, but there is scarcely a task, light or grave, 
scarcely an event, great or small, but has its fitting song. 

In the Hebrew "Genesis" the creating word is spoken — "And 
God said, Let there be light." In nearly every Indian myth the 
creator sings things into life. For civilized man, the messages of 
truth, the traditions of his ancestors, the history of his race, the 
records of his thought have been secured upon the written page 
and so transmitted through the years. To the Indian, truth, tradi- 
tion, history, and thought are preserved in ritual of poetry and 
song. The red man's song records the teachings of his wise 
men, the great deeds of his heroes, the counsel of his seers, the 
worship of his God. If all things Indian must, indeed, pass away 
under the white man's ban as being " pagan " and " uncivilized," 
then will be lost to the red man not only his whole unwritten litera- 
ture, but also, and sadder still, the realm wherein his soul aspires. 
For to the primitive man of another race, no creed wholly alien 
to his thought and environment ever can replace his own entire 
spiritual world, which is the heritage of his past and the natural ex- 
pression of his soul. 



224 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

Indian song has a far closer relation to religion or its 
ceremonials than with any civilized people, hence it is 
almost impossible to hear certain of their songs except 
on special occasions. Therefore, to gain a reasonably 
comprehensive idea of the scope and variety of their 
music one must spend at least a whole year — make the 
complete cycle of their ceremonial calendar — with them, 
or he can never hear those songs and chants that are re- 
served for the special occasions of winter and summer 
solstices, the coming and going of the Katchinas, etc. 

Then, too, many songs are archaic ; their origin is 
lost in tradition ; even the significance of the words is 
unknown. It is as though they were in an alien and 
foreign tongue, yet, so important is rigid accuracy in their 
rendition, that, on ceremonial occasions there are always 
several critics present who listen attentively, and should 
any error in tone, rhythm or tempo occur, the whole cere- 
monial is vitiated and everything must begin again at 
the beginning. 

The matter of decided change of tempo for one, two, 
three, or more bars and sudden reversion to the original 
time, is a striking characteristic of Pueblo music. It is 
in no sense a rallentando. It is a decided and definite 
change for the prescribed time, and is observed with the 
precision of a metronome, changing again to the original 
tempo, which is resumed with accuracy. It has been 
aptly described as a " leap from one tempo to another 
and back again." The important matter to the listener 
is to realize that it is perfectly accomplished. 

Another peculiarity, which is a general characteristic 
of all Indian song, is the rhythmical pulsation of the voice 
on sustained notes. In the song herein transcribed this 
pulsation is expressed whenever tied notes have vocables 
or syllables written out beneath them. 



Indian Songs and Music 225 

Another striking characteristic has been presented 
forcefully by Charles Wakefield Cadman in his lectures, 
viz., the ability of the Indian to control two or more 
rhythms at one and the same time. His drum beat will 
be in one tempo, his song in another and his dance move- 
ments in yet another, and still, the onlooker, while real- 
izing these differences, is also conscious of a peculiar 
harmony of movement in them. 

Of scores of the songs of the Pueblos might be said 
what Arthur Farwell eloquently says of one of the Omaha 
Indian songs he has harmonized : 

It gives expression to a mellowed love of life, born of years 
of benign and ennobling existence, voiced at dawn in the presence 
of peaceful nature. It is a tribute, in song, to the spirit of Love 
and Beauty in the world. The dreamy and idyllic prelude is but a 
floating breath. This song, with its phrases like the notes of 
birds, and its pastoral musings, is singularly self-explanatory. It 
wafts like the breath of a zephyr over the grasses of gentle hill- 
tops, and is not inferior, in its idyllic quality, to the music which 
Wagner conceived for the " Flower-maidens " in Parsifal. 

Of dramatic qualities it is neither ignorance nor ex- 
aggeration that leads me to affirm that there is much in 
the music of the Navahos, Apaches, and various Pueblos 
of New Mexico that equals, and I believe, surpasses, 
anything in any of the grand operas produced in Eu- 
rope during the past hundred years. 

What can be more dramatic than the Ghost Dance of 
the Zunis transcribed by Carlos Troyer. Here are the 
author's own notes: 

This dance is not strictly an annual with the Zunis ; in fact vari- 
ous occasions may induce its performance, foremost, the recent 
death of a beloved member of their tribe. The ostensible object 
of this ritual, it would seem, is the calling into view and into their 
presence, the spirits of the departed, which they hold is best ac- 
complished by the strenuous exertion of the fire-dance and by loud 
and urgent appeals and entreaties to appear and join them in the 



226 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

merry dance. The time chosen is usually at the full of the moon 
and the dance is participated in by most of the tribes-people. The 
ancient ruins and deserted and secluded places are the spots looked 
upon as favorable to this object, such as the old town of Zuni, but 
more frequently the plateau upon the great thunder-mountain, "Tai- 
'ol-lon-ne," is the special haunt of the annual ghost dancers. 

This latter spot constitutes the highest elevation of the mount, 
which is about a mile in diameter. Standing upon a projecting 
rock within two hundred feet of the center we could distinctly feel 
the heat (though on a cold winter night) of the tall, pyramid- 
shaped fire-piles in full blaze. Two concentric circles of fire-piles 
were visible, the piles of the outer being about five feet apart, the 
inner or central pyramids (about twenty feet from the outer 
circle) being built closer together. The dancers were almost nude, 
but most fancifully painted all over their bodies, the red colour 
predominating, and turbaned heads adorned with eagle feathers and 
their feet clothed in moccasins. 

The opening of the dance was preceded by the blast of long, 
deep-sounding trumpets, accompanied by the beating of gongs and 
the snake drums, which, together, had the effect of a solemn, dirge- 
like march. This was followed by the appearance of some forty 
ghost dancers holding in their right hands fire-brands, which they 
whirled to and fro, and in their left snake-rattles, which they 
shook at every step of the dance, singing to a wild monotone chant, 
" Hec, hec, jecta-hec, hec, hec, tu-na, wo-ki, nai-ia, ku-ra hec, hec, 
hec," etc., meaning " Come, come, come, come among us, come be 
with us, all united we will meet you in the fire-dance, come, come, 
come," etc. The dance proceeds immediately after the inner pyra- 
mids are lit, the dancers following a serpentine path in and out 
the fire-piles, but soon becoming lost to sight as the volume of smoke 
completely envelopes them. 

The chant is a constant and varied appeal to their departed friends, 
alternating in loud and low strains, once merry and joyful as in 
happy expectance, then again mournful and entreating, that they 
should come and join them in their dance and make themselves 
visible. Thus by their acclamations and various methods, they 
seek to attract the spirits of the departed, first in merry-making, 
then by the imitation of sounds of wild animals, such as the wolf, 
coyote, mountain lion, and wild birds (which they are wonderful in 
imitating as a lure while on the hunt) : then again they appeal to 
their sympathies in mournful strains, begging them to be again 
among them to cheer their lonesome lives, and to these cries strange 
responses are echoed, bringing assurances that the spirits will soon 
appear to them. 



Indian Songs and Music 227 

The climax of the greatest excitement of the dance was reached, 
when the inner fire-circle was at its fullest blast, and the cries 
and moans of the dancers rose to the highest tension. At this 
moment, when from all sides the closest watch was kept on the 
rising smoke of the central fire, a sudden lull took place — as of a 
deep inspiration before giving vent to their pent-up feelings — 
for their anxious expectations seemed at last gratified by the appear- 
ance of slowly descending figures of transparent human forms. 
An outburst of the wildest joy and the loudest exclamations of wel- 
come, nearly bordering on frenzy, took possession of the assembled, 
crowd. These spectral figures were seen slowly descending and 
rising and in part keeping step with the music of the dancers, 
while the excitement was at its height. As the fires diminished 
the spectral forms quickly vanished. 

Then the dance was renewed again, this time the outer fire- 
piles being set on fire. The dancers, one and all, soon disappeared 
behind the burning pyramids as the smoke became the thickest and 
the fire-flames rose the highest. All the spectators now turned 
back to more elevated regions on the surrounding clififs, to watch 
the progress of the second fire-dance. The same scene was enacted 
and the transparent human forms appeared this time still more dis- 
tinct and apparently closer to the ground. The crowd could 
now no longer be held back, and the surging mass rushed towards 
the center amidst the wildest cries and moans, only to find that 
all had vanished, ghosts and dancers alike, and nothing was left 
on the ground but the last dying embers and ashes, of fire-wood. 

In the Sunrise Call, also transcribed by Carlos Troyer, 
the simple dramatic elements are utilized with great ef- 
fect. The piece opens with the vibrating chime-plates 
vigorously brought into action in the hands of the Sun- 
priest. This calls out upon the house-tops men, women 
and children. Now with stentorian and thrilling voice 
he cries to the far-away distant mesas, " Rise, arise, 
arise." Then with ventriloquial sweetness the response 
comes in the form of an echo. Now with vigour and in- 
spiration he sings : 

Wake ye ! arise ! life is greeting thee. 
Wake ye ! arise ! ever watchful be. 
Mother Life-god, she is calling thee ! 
Life-god, she is greeting thee ! 



228 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

Again the cry breaks forth to " Arise! " followed by 
the soft echo. Now, in appealing, tremulous voice, the 
Sun Priest prays in his song : 

Mighty Sun-god ! give thy light to us, 

Let it guide us, let it aid us, 

See it rise ! See it rise ! 

How the heart glows, 

How the soul delights, 

In the music of the sun-light. — 

Watch it rise ! Watch it rise ! 

Wake ye, arise, life is greeting thee. 

Wake ye, arise, ever watchful be. 

Mother Life-god, she is calling thee! 

Mother Life-god, she is greeting thee! 

The prayer concludes with a final repetition of the sun 
call and its echo. When one hears this song it makes 
no difference whether he can understand the words or 
not ; the dramatic quality is powerfully felt. And this 
fact leads to the observation that the Indian is much 
concerned that the words of his songs be clearly heard 
and understood. This in spite of the further fact already 
referred to that many of his songs are archaic and he him- 
self even does not understand the words. But in such 
a case there is a mysterious element in the strangeness of 
the words, in their very antiquity, in the solemnity of the 
accompanying ceremonies, that produce the needful emo- 
tions even more powerfully than were the words under- 
stood. For the Indian lives in the very heart of mys- 
tery. All around, beneath, above him are the mysteries 
of Nature. Life is a great mystery. Death also. The 
ebb and flow of the tides, the winter and summer solstices, 
the rain and snow, thunder and lightning, the moon and 
stars, — all, all, are mysteries. 

Yet he is also susceptible to the charm and beauty of 
that which surrounds him. After the cold weather, when 



Indian Songs and Music 229 

the sun comes forth and abundantly warms him he is 
thankful for the grateful warmth and appreciative of 
the beauty of the up-springing grass and flowers and the 
leafing out of the trees. He watches with joy the bees 
and butterflies as they flit to and fro ; and the mist pro- 
duced by the sun shining on the pollen blown through 
the air is gloriously beautiful to him, , He sees the glint 
of sun on water and the delight of rippling waves. 
These and a thousand and one other things of Nature's 
manifestation appeal to him in mystery, beauty, glory, 
charm, beneficence, and so he incorporates them into his 
songs. Hence the need of a thorough study of the words 
of all Indian songs. Indeed, in Indian music there are 
four features that should be separately studied, viz. : 

I. The words, 2. The melody, 3. The relationship 
between the words and the melody, 4. The rendition. 

I. The words. After a study of scores of songs, many 
of which have been personally collected, I am wonder- 
fully impressed with the high patriotism, love of coun- 
try, love of the immediate objects of scenery, etc., with the 
folk-lore, the religion, the reverence, and the profound 
love for Nature they reveal. 

As former president Theodore Roosevelt says of them 
in his Introduction to Natalie Curtis's Indian Book: 

They cast a wholly new light on the depth and dignity of Indian 
thought, the simple beauty and strange charm — the charm of a 
vanishing elder world — of Indian poetry. 

Just as I am completing this manuscript for the press 
there comes to my hand a handsome volume, The Path of 
the Rainbow, a book of Indian poems, edited by George 
W. Cronyn. Mary Austin, who wrote the Introduction, 
has had years of intimate association with Indians, knows 
their legends, social life, religious ceremonies and songs, 



230 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

as few whites ever learn them. Hence her words have 
a decided value when she says : 

The poetic faculty is, of all man's modes, the most responsive 
to natural environment, the most sensitive and the truest record 
of his reactions to its skyey influences, its floods, forests, morning 
colours. It is the first to register the rise of his spirits to the 
stimulus of new national ideals. If this were not so there would 
be no such thing as nationality in art, and it is only by establish- 
ing some continuity with the earliest instances of such reaction 
that we can be at all sure that American poetic genius has struck 
its native note. Therefore it becomes appropriate and important that 
this collection of American Indian verse should be brought to pub- 
lic notice at a time when the whole instinctive movement of the 
American people is for a deeper footing in their native soil. It 
is the certificate of our adoption, that the young genius of our 
time should strike all unconsciously on this ancient track to the 
High Places. 

Poetic art in America at the time it began to be overlaid by 
European culture, had reached a mark close to that of the Greeks 
at the beginning of the Homeric era. The lyric was well de- 
veloped, the epic was nascent, and the drama was still in the Satyris 
stage of development, a rude dance ritual about an altar or a sac- 
rificial fire. Neither poetry nor drama were yet divorced from 
singing, and all art was but half-born out of the Great Mystery. 
Magic was sung, and songs had magic power. Both were accom- 
panied by appropriate bodily movement, so that an Indian will say 
indifferently, I cannot sing that dance, or I cannot dance that song. 
Words, melody and movement were as much mixed as the water 
of a river with its own ripples and its rate of flowing. Hum a few 
bars of a plainsman's familiar song, and he will say, puzzled, " It 
ought to be a war song," but without the words he will scarcely 
identify it. Words may become obsolete so that the song is un- 
translatable, but so long as enough of it remains to hold together the 
primary emotional impulse out of which it sprang, the Indian finds 
it worthy to be sung. He is, indeed, of the opinion that " White 
man's songs, they talk too much." 

This partly explains why most Indian songs are songs for oc- 
casions. The rest of the explanation lies in the fact that songs 
have magic power. Tirawa, Wokonda, The Friend of the Soul of 
Man, is in everything; in the field we plant, the stone we grind 
with, the bear we kill. By singing, the soul of the singer is put 
in harmony with the Essence of Things. There are songs for 
every possible adventure of tribal life; songs for setting out on 



Indian Songs and Music 231 

a journey, a song for the first sight of your destination, and a song 
to be sung by your wife for your safe return. Many of these songs 
occur detached from everything but the occasion from which they 
sprang, such as the women's grinding song, measured to the 
plump, plump! of the mealing stone, of the Paddle Song which 
follows the swift rhythm of the stroke. Others, less descriptive 
and retaining always something of a sacred character, occur 
originally as numbers in the song sequences by which are celebrated 
the tribal Mysteries. 

Back of every Indian ceremony lies a story, the high moments of 
which are caught up in song, while the burden of the narrative is 
carried by symbolic rite and dance. The unequal social develop- 
ment of contemporaneous tribes affords examples from every 
phase of structural development from the elemental dance punctu- 
ated by singing exclamations to the Mountain Chant of the Zuni in 
which the weight of the story has broken down the verse variants 
into strong simple forms capable of being carried in a single 
memory. Halfway between them is the ritual sequence of the 
Midewan. 

The practical necessity of being preserved and handed on by 
word of mouth only, must be constantly borne in mind in consider- 
ing the development of Indian verse forms. 

It operated to keep the poetry tied to its twin-born melody, which 
assisted memory, and was constantly at work modifying the native 
tendency to adjust the rhythm to every changing movement of the 
story. 

In analyzing the different types of song she thus speaks 
of the personal songs : 

For the casual reader more interest attaches to the personal songs, 
the lullabys, love songs, most of all the man's own song which 
he makes of great moment. This is a peculiar personal posses- 
sion. No one may sing it without his permission. He may be- 
stow it on a friend, or bequeath it to the tribe on his death, but it 
is also possible that he may die without having sung it to any one 
but his god. 

On one occasion in the high Sierras I observed my Indian packer 
going apart at a certain hour each day to shuffle rhythmically 
with his feet and croon to himself. To my inquiry he said it was 
a song which he had made, to be sung by himself and his wife when 
they were apart from one another. 

It had no words; it was just a song. Wherever they were they 
turned each in the direction he supposed the other to be, when the 



232 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

sun was a bow-shot above the edge of the heavens, and sang to- 
gether. This is the sort of incident which gives the true value of 
song in aboriginal life. It is not the words which are potent, but 
the states of mind evoked by singing, states which the simple 
savage conceived as being supernally good for him. He evoked them 
therefore on all his most personal occasions. Poetry is the Path 
on the Rainbow by which the soul climbs ; it lays hold on the Friend 
of the Soul of Man. Such exalted states are held to be pro- 
tective and curative. Medicine men sing for their patients, and, 
in times of war, wives gather around the Chief's woman and sing 
for the success of their warriors. 
" Calling on Zeus by the names of Victory," as Euripides puts it. 
It is this inherent power of poetry to raise the psychic plane 
above the accidents of being, which gives meaning to the custom 
of the Death Song. As he sees his moment approaching, the Indian 
throws himself, by some profound instinct of self-preservation, into 
the highest frame of mind attainable. When men in battle broke 
into the death song, they had committed themselves to the last 
desperate adventure. Dying of enfeebling sickness, their friends 
came and sang around them. One such I heard, the death song of 
a Yokut Song Maker. It was very simple : 
" All my life 

I have been seeking. 

Seeking ! " 
What more than this have the schools taught us ! 

Navahos, Apaches, Pueblos, all alike have songs of 
creation; of the Holy Ones; of the mountains, valleys, 
sunrise, sunsets, clouds, sky, birds, beasts, growing 
things. In this desert New Mexico rain is one of the 
most desirable of all things, hence many of the Indian 
prayer songs are for rain, as, for instance, the Corn 
Dance Song of the Zunis : 

Who, ah know ye who — 

Who was't that made the picture first? 
'Twas the bright Rainbow Youth, 

Rainbow youth — 
Ay, behold, 'twas even thus — 

Clouds came. 

And the rain came 

Close following — 
Rainbow then coloured all! 



Indian Songs and Music 233 



Here is rich poetry and it is equally expressive in the 
Song of the Blue-Corn Dance. 

Beautiful, lo, the summer clouds. 
Blossoming clouds in the sky, 
Like unto shimmering flowers. 
Blossoming clouds in the sky. 
Onward, lo, they come, 
Hither, thither, bound! 

Who that has watched the forming, blossoming of 
the clouds in the sky, cannot see them, in this song, float- 
ing, drifting, and, to the Indian mind, bringing the rain 
that will fructify the corn and make it grow plentifully? 
Yet the Indian sees far more in the simple words than 
we do. 

It is impossible to render a perfect translation of In- 
dian songs. The Indians' use of words is very differ- 
ent from ours. One word often means so much; it 
stands for not only one idea, but for other ideas which 
surround it. On this subject Natalie Curtis writes: 

Indian poetry, like Indian art, is expressed in symbol. The cloud- 
form in Indian design is no copy of a cloud, but a conventionalized 
image that is a symbol meaning cloud, as a wavy line means water 
or a cross stands for a star. Even so in poetry. One word may 
be the symbol of a complete idea that, in English, would need a 
whole sentence for its expression. Even those who know the 
language may not understand the songs unless they know what 
meaning lies behind the symbolic words. Such poetry is impres- 
sionistic, and many may be the interpretations of the same song 
given by different singers. Again, where the songs belong to sacred 
ceremonies or to secret societies, the meaning is purposely hidden 
— a whole mystery enshrined — that only the initiated may hear 
and understand. 

Take, for instance, such a word as the Navaho tro- 
tlan-astshi. Simply translated, this means " all waters," 
or " waters from many springs." But to the Navaho it 
brings pictures of travelings towards certain sacred 



234 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

springs and reservoirs to the north, west, south and 
east, where shamans or medicine men of power and in- 
fluence have performed long, serious and elaborate cere- 
monials, in which prayer, song, smoke, and dance have 
had place. He sees these shamans gathering these vari- 
ous waters, and then, in the sanctity of the medicine 
hogan, visualizes their mixing. Furthermore he sees 
water from hail, snow, springs, creeks, rivers, lakes and 
ponds, carefully and ceremonially gathered and mixed 
together, his thought being that when such water is 
poured out by Those Above upon his corn-seed it must 
fructify and bring forth abundantly, and by his song 
he aids in bringing this desideratum to pass. 

Another word — nadesta — is used by the Navaho in 
one of his songs. Its direct translation is " I am going 
homeward," but in this case the context implies '* I shall 
go home upon the rainbow," for the " Superior Be- 
ings," the " Divine Ones " always travel in this fashion. 

In one of the Zuni corn-grinding songs the white 
translator would see nothing but the rainbow : 

Yonder, yonder see the fair rainbow, 

See the rainbow brightly decked and painted ! 

The Zuni, however, in singing, sees the mythical Rain- 
bow Youth, one of the important figures in his pantheon 
of gods. He it is that is " brightly decked and painted," 
and his coming means personal favour and interest in 
the people. 

The remaining lines of the song are : 

Now the swallow bringeth glad news to your corn. 
Singing, " Hitherward, hitherward, hitherward, rain, 

Hither come ! " 
Singing, " Hitherward, hitherward, hitherward, white cloud, 

Hither come ! " 
Now hear the corn-plants murmur, 



Indian Songs and Music 235 

■' We are growing everywhere! " 
Hi, yai ! The world, how fair ! 

The Pueblos have many lullaby songs, one of the 
most beautiful of which has become fairly familiar to 
American music lovers through Carlos Troyer's excel- 
lent rendition. The words were originally transcribed 
by Gushing. The Zuni mother lays her baby in a ham- 
mock or fastens the carrying-basket to the swinging 
bough of a tree, and placing her hand on the top of its 
head she gazes at the child with an intent and affection- 
ate gaze, exhorting it in a low voice, half speaking, half 
chanting, to go to sleep. The words are : 

Now, rest thee in peace, 

With thy playmates above; 

Close thine eyes, my baby, 

Go, join in their happy enjoyments, my love, 

Sleep on, sweetly, soundly. 

These words imply the belief of the Pueblos that when 
asleep the spirit enters into happy communion with other 
freed spirits either from this world or the next. 

Now comes the especial invocation. While the child 
is still sleeping the mother passionately petitions the Sun- 
god and the beneficent powers in the moon and stars 
to give their protection to the little one, as only they can 
do while it sleeps. The gestures, poses, movements from 
one point to another as she addresses one heavenly power 
and then another, and the passionate pleading, tender, 
urging, make of this a most dramatic and impressive 
song. The words, as translated by Gushing, are as fol- 
lows: 

Grant, O Sun-god, thy protection ! 
Guard this helpless infant sleeping. 
Grant, O Sun-god, thy protection 
Guard this helpless infant sleeping, 



236 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

Resting peaceful, resting peaceful ! 

Starry guardians forever joyful, 

Faithful Moon-god forever watchful 

Grant, O Sun-god, thy protection, 

Guard this helpless infant sleeping! 

Spirit living. Spirit resting. 

Guard us, lead us, aid us, love us. 

Sun-god, forever Spirit living, Spirit resting, 

Guard us, lead us, aid us, love us, 

Sun-god forever. 

In the reproduction, in these pages, of Natalie Cur- 
tis Burlin's Laguna Grinding Song, one may gain a clear 
idea of the richness of Indian melody, and the sweet 
beauty of the poetry. Of this song Mrs. Burlin wrote 
when she first published it : 

This song is of singular beauty, and has found its way far be- 
yond Laguna to distant Zuni, a pueblo whose inhabitants speak a 
different tongue. It tells of the sweet, pure rainwater, " wonder- 
water," caught in those reservoirs of nature, hollows worn in the 
rocks by the erosion of wind and sand. Such water is highly prized 
by the Indians, for rain is the great need of the agricultural pueblo 
people whose villages dot the cliffs and levels of the desert. Even 
though the pueblos of New Mexico are near the Rio Grande and 
are further aided by an ancient native system of irrigation, in 
song and dance is still expressed the cry for rain. 

In order fully to translate the meaning of the last song, English 
words had to be added in the phrase, " Look where southwest 
clouds are bringing rain." The Indian words are simply, " Yonder 
southwest, yonder southeast." But the Indians thus explain the 
passage : " In the song we say, ' Look to the southwest, look to 
the southeast ! The clouds are coming toward the springs ; the 
clouds will bring the water.' It is from the southwest and the 
southeast that we usually get our rain." 

2. The melody. We have already guessed enough 
of the melody of Indian songs to lose our first prejudice 
against them. The m.elody of the Invocation to the Sun- 
god is as purely beautiful and haunting as Robin Adair 
or Annie Laurie. One of the yodeling corn-grinding 
songs of the Zunis has lived with me over the thirty years 



Indian Songs and Music 237 

since first I heard it, and it is as thrilling and appealing 
and satisfying to-day as it was then. The song was 
transcribed by Natalie Curtis and appears in her Songs 
of Ancient America. 

3. The relationship between words and melody. 

This is the first thing that powerfully impresses the 
deeper student of Indian music. The music is the natural 
outcome of the words. In Lieurance's transcriptions of 
the Taos songs one feels this instinctively. One knows 
there is sadness, regret, pain, in the slow movement and' 
song when the sun goes down, and San Geronimo, their 
patron saint, departs from them. It is of slow tempo, 
without drums, and a three-pulse rhythm. 

Yet, the next day, when the same music is heard in 
a much quicker tempo one feels the thrill or excitement 
of victory. It celebrates the victors in the race. Of 
their love songs Lieurance says : 

Probably the love songs are the more tuneful. They are sung 
at night by members of different clans from the bridge which spans 
the Taos River and separates the two large pueblos. You hear a 
flute occasionally. The love songs are composed and owned by 
individuals when wooing. Words of love, which the girls say to 
their lovers, are introduced. 

The soft tenderness of these love words, and the gen- 
tle music that accompanies them are most perfect mani- 
festations of adaptation of words to music. A fine ex- 
ample of this is Troyer's rendition of a Zuni's wooing. 
Of this song he says : 

Before the opening of the annual spring festivities, it is the custom 
especially among the graduated braves of a certain age — the sons 
of the Chiefs and High Priests — ^to seek for themselves a wife, 
who must also be a maiden of high standing in the tribe. It is 
almost incumbent upon a Zuni by the laws of his forefathers, in 
order to become eligible to the highest positions and honours of the 
tribe, to be a father, and especially to have male offspring. 

The time considered by the Zunis propitious for advancing their 



238 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

addresses is at the approach of, or during, full-moon, and in the 
silent hours of the night, when the people rest in slumber. 

Arrayed in most gorgeous attire, adorned with a handsome head- 
gear of various coloured feathers, and profusely decorated with 
silver ornaments, shells and turquoises, the young brave goes forth 
to the abode of his love. Every step scintillating with the music of 
his tarconca and the shaking of his snake-rattle filled with pebbles, 
he is indeed a delightful and captivating sight to behold. Yet his 
special pride in the display of his attire he attaches to his hand- 
somely woven blanket, which he wears and gracefully waves in 
his dance with the object of inducing his beloved to come and 
take a walk with him under the blanket, which confirms her actual 
acceptance of him, as her lover. 

He first cautiously approaches the dwelling of his loved one, 
watching silently for any signs of her presence at home — listening 
for any strains of song from her lips, or a glimmer of light from 
the fire upon the roof — and when reasonably assured of her pres- 
ence, enters with zeal into his happy song and dance. The coy 
maiden keeps herself well concealed from his gaze, until she feels 
more confident of accepting him. If she likes his personality or 
his blanket, or both, she will, as her first assent, throw him some 
various coloured plumes, an arrow or bear's tooth, as emblems of 
love, bravery or fearlessness, according to her preference. He is, 
however, expected to repeat his song and dance a third time be- 
fore the maiden decides to accept him or to make her appearance. 
Failing in the latter, he may as well consider his suit rejected. The 
language or expression of request in this, as in general in Zunian 
intercourse, is always couched in most polite terms, never com- 
manding or aggressive, but conservative and appealing, the request 
not being directly stated, but gracefully and poetically implied. 

The words are as follows : 

O ! What happiness ! how delightful, 

When together we, 'neath one blanket walk. 

We together, 'neath one blanket walk, 

We together, 'neath one blanket walk, 

We walk. 

Can it be that my young maiden fair, 

Sits awaiting, all alone to-night? 

Is she waiting for me only? 

Is she waiting for me only? 

May I hope it is, my young maiden, 

Sitting all alone and awaiting me; 

Will she come then? 



Indian Songs and Music 239 

Will she walk with me? 'neath one blanket, 

We together be, 

We two, we two, we two, we two, 

Will she come? 

4. The rendition. From what has preceded it will 
be apparent that the Indian's rendition of his (or her) 
songs must be alive, vigorous, truthful. They are songs 
of Nature. When they feel aggressive their songs, their 
words, and their rendition show it. And so with every 
other rendition. In itself this feature of Indian life 
might be an education to our American youth. It is a 
never failing exemplification of the scriptural injunction, 
" Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy 
might." 

One might readily believe that within the boundary 
of one state — even though so large a one territorially 
as is New Mexico, — the music of the different Indians 
would be alike, or, at least, very similar. The converse, 
however, is the fact. The voices of the Pueblo singers 
as a whole are sweet and low, the women's flutelike, pure, 
clear and thrilling; the men's resonant, well-controlled 
and full. 

On occasion they can sing loudly, and they even yodel; 
and one will often hear a youth, going out in the early 
morning to tend his sheep, singing with vigour and 
abandon. But even then a sweet purity of tone is given 
forth, and the effect is soothing and pleasing. 

On the other hand the dance songs of the Navaho and 
Apache generally are high-pitched, harsh, half-shrieked 
utterances, with an enlargement of that kind of grunting 
emphasis we are all familiar with, at the end of cadences, 
in Caruso's singing. The reason for this is apparent, as 
these songs are sung during dances of the most energetic, 
almost violent, character. It is scarcely to be expected 



240 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

when men are jumping up and down, throwing their 
knees up to their chins, moving hands and arms also in 
active gesticulations, that they should sing with the same 
quiet purity as the calm and placid Pueblos. Yet the 
women, in their lullabies and corn-grinding songs have 
soft, quiet, gentle tones that remind me much of the 
beautiful strains of the hermit thrush. 

My contention is that this mad, hurrying, money-lov- 
ing, mechanical-moving, inventive, restless, objective race 
of Anglo-Saxon Americans cannot afford to lose the in- 
fluence of these poised, self-controlled, often silent, or- 
iginal dwellers upon the soil. We need much of what 
they possess. Their pure love of the Nature that sur- 
rounds them, their richly poetic expressions regarding it, 
their fiery patriotism directed towards every mountain, 
canyon, plain, foothill, stream, and trivial mound can 
well be emulated by the best of Americans and highly de- 
sired for those less patriotic citizens of ours that our 
recent war drafts have revealed as willing to receive all 
from this country but to give little or nothing in return. 
The Indian above all things else is a devoted patriot. 
He loves every foot of the land of his birth, barren, 
desolate, desert, marsh, rock though it be ; his eyes thrill 
with joy as he wanders over it. He prays for it, sings 
of it, fights for it, and, if necessary, is glad to die for it. 

All this his songs reveal. 

Of late years Homer Grunn, a careful and conscien- 
tious student and teacher of music, of Los Angeles, has 
visited the Zunis, securing a few of their melodies, which 
he has worked up into an effective suite for the piano 
entitled Zuni Impressions. Perhaps it would be nearer 
the truth to say that, in the three first numbers of the suite 
of four, he has given out the overshadowing spirit of 
Zuni music. One feels the wide spaces of the desert 



Indian Songs and Music 241 

country, the outlook upon high mesas, and the wild, primi- 
tive conditions. Into the introductory measures, which 
suggest the environment, comes, with quiet calmness, dig- 
nity and force, the Indian melodic themes, harmonized in 
expressive fashion. The Flute god — Payatamu — who 
aids in bringing rain — is introduced. The Zuni legend 
or myth is that the Zuni gods of war, while strolling 
about, heard wonderfully sweet music issuing from a 
secret source. They found, as they approached Corn 
Mountain — Tai-yo-al-la-ne — that it came from a 
spring, the entrance to which was guarded by a rain- 
bow. Here Payatamu was playing on his flute, while 
eight beautiful corn maidens were grinding corn and 
singing. 

The flute-playing was the gentle gurgling of the spring 
as the water bubbled to the surface, and it has been 
charmingly presented by Mr. Grunn, with the accompani- 
ment of the corn-maidens singing and grinding, and the 
colourful effects suggested by the rainbow. 

The next number reproduces the mental effects pro- 
duced on the composer as he watched the All Animal 
Dance of the Zunis. In reality this is a dance adopted 
from the Hopis — the Snake Dancing Indians of Ari- 
zona. Each man wears a mask representing one of the 
game animals, from the elk to the hare. The leader 
represents Lelentu, the Hopi god of music, butterflies, and 
flowers, and many visitors to the Hopi pueblos have en- 
joyed the rare beauty of some of the Lelentu dances, 
while others have witnessed the weird and fascinating 
ceremonies at the springs, while the row of fluters 
solemnly piped their thrilling music upon their primitive 
fifes on the hillside above. 

During this dance at Zuni the men, personating the 
animals, while preserving the rhythmic effect of the 



242 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

movements of the dancers as a whole, individually re- 
produce, as far as they can, the movements of the ani- 
mals they represent. This affords scope for great dra- 
matic effects, seldom attempted on the civilized stage, 
yet, as in Maude Adams's representation of Chanticleer, 
demanding a high power of observation and perception 
and an equally high power of reproduction of the ac- 
tions and mental qualities of the fowl. 

These Zunis seek to excel each other in their portrayal 
of the movements and general characteristics of the ani- 
mals, and the careful observer may learn much of these 
dancers he would never discover were he left to his 
own observation, even though the living animals them- 
selves constantly were before him. The dance, as a 
whole, is most beautiful, and occurs during the ceremonies 
of the Saniakiakwe, or Hunters', Fraternity. It occurs 
at intervals through the day and concludes with one of 
the hunters shooting a cottontail rabbit, which gives great 
grief to the other animals. 

During this dance Mr. Grunn observed that one dancer 
stood a little apart, and occasionally let out a great roar, 
the significance of which he did not understand, and, 
at the time, no one present seemed able to explain. In 
the chapter on Hunting I have explained that the " spirit 
roar " of the hunting fetich is supposed to have the power 
of actually terrifying the animal hunted, so that it easily 
falls a prey to the hunter. This roar of the dancer is 
a representation of the animal roar of the hunting ani- 
mal. 

Feeling the deep spirit of the dance, and thrilling with 
this peculiar cry or roar, Mr. Grunn wrote the third 
number of his suite and entitled it " A Mysterious 
Story," and one cannot help but respond as he listens to 
its wild weirdness. Equally effectively does he inter- 



Indian Songs and Music 243 

weave the actual melodies heard during one of the Kor- 
kokshi Dances — a prayer for rain. 

In addition to this suite Mr. Grunn has written a Song 
of the Desert, an Indian Love Song and an Indian Dance, 
all for the piano and suitable for orchestration. In them 
he has preserved the spirit of the music of the country 
and its people, and I look for later and even finer work 
from him, when he can devote more time and study to 
the inner life of the Indians as well as their music. 

In this chapter upon the songs and music of the In- 
dians of New Mexico I have gathered together many 
and various threads, purposely, in order that the thought- 
ful reader might see how that, by the workings of many 
keenly interested students, we are slowly entering into 
and possessing the arcana of Indian poetry and song. 

In conclusion, I would like to reiterate what cannot be 
said too often, viz., that this is real music and real poetry, 
born of our own country, indigenous to our own soil, en- 
shrining the thought, history, poetry, tradition, religion 
of people of our own land, and therefore a necessary 
factor to the full understanding of our country. Of its 
suggestiveness to our modern composers their own works 
must be proof. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE NATIVE ARCHITECTURE OF NEW MEXICO 

For long years it has been the current boast of CaH- 
fornians that the Franciscan Mission buildings enshrine 
the only architecture that, truthfully, can be designated 
a " style," born within the confines of what is now the 
United States. We Calif ornians have been sincere in this 
declaration. Yet it is amazing how dulled were our 
powers of observation. Some of us, for many years, had 
been rambling throughout New Mexico. We were fully 
conversant with the old mission structures of that coun- 
try and had delved into their history. Yet, having eyes 
we saw not. We failed to appreciate that they were as 
distinct a variation from the Moorish type, — brought 
to Mexico by the Spaniards and from thence into New 
Mexico and California by the Franciscan friars — as was 
the California type. That they owe their origin to the 
same common stock is evident ; and that the New Mexico 
type was the first developed is historically provable. 
For most of the churches were built long before the Fran- 
ciscans entered California. 

To what, then, is attributable the decided variation 
in the two styles — for it will be agreed upon, sooner 
or later, to honour both types by entitling them " styles " 
— of the " California Mission," and the " New Mexico 
Mission " ? As Dr. Edgar L. Hewett well remarks : 

The world does not afford a finer study in architectural adaptation 
than these Missions. First, they display the historic ancestry of 
the type as derived from Mexico. This we c ,ve to the Franciscans, 

244 







'K 




J^ 



Native Architecture of New Mexico 245 

Then in a perfectly unstudied way this is merged into the style of 
the native Pueblos. The workmen under the direction of the priests 
carried out the feeling of their own art with no violence to the 
foreign style that was given them. The material was the earth 
on which they stood and the forests. near by. Lack of tools except 
the very crudest, and scarcity of metal prevented finished work- 
manship. The building is a product of its environments, raw, crude, 
virile, imposing in its simple strength, and at the same time display- 
ing touches of finest esthetic feeling. 

It must be confessed that there have been few who 
have realized these striking features of the New Mexico 
Missions. Several mission churches, as, for instance, 
those at San Fernando de Taos, Penasco, Nambe, and 
Santa Clara, have been either deliberately wrecked to 
make way for more modern structures, or allowed to 
fall into ruins. That of Zuni is a crumbling mass of 
adobe, while several others are rapidly disintegrating. 
Others, like that of Pecos, have long perished, or like 
that of Taos or Santo Domingo were destroyed during 
some conflict, or convulsion of Nature. Still others, as 
of Cochiti, have been so modernized that the " benevolent 
vandalism " has destroyed their New Mexican individ- 
uality. 

To-day an enthusiastic group has began to study New 
Mexican architecture and to demand that it be accorded 
its proper place. Carlos Vierra, an artist who has suc- 
cumbed to New Mexican attractions, is a leader in the 
movement and has written much that is enlightening upon 
the subject. He shows clearly that New Mexican archi- 
tecture is a natural growth, springing originally from 
the needs of the Indians. These were few, primitive and 
simple. In their buildings the Indians were influenced by 
the materials used, which, in the main, were wood and 
adobe. Small domestic structures were built of puddled 
adobe, supported on poles, branches, twigs, etc., after 



246 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

the fashion in which steel for reinforced concrete is used 
to-day. The roofs were flat and there was no attempt at 
adornment. 

Later the community building was developed, of which 
the pueblo structures at the Hopi pueblos, Zuni, Acoma 
and Santo Domingo and Taos are the prominent ex- 
amples. Here, the terraced style was invented, or, at 
least, perfected and long in use, for we find it in dwellings 
that are regarded as prehistoric. Simpson's report on 
the ruins of Chaco mesa and canyon contains a drawing 
by R. H. Kern, of the appearance the ruins of Hungo- 
Pavie pueblo would have if restored, and how ancient this 
building is we do not know. 

Davis in his El Gringo, published in 1857, thus de- 
scribes the Taos buildings : 

They are five and six stories high, each story receding from the 
one below it, and thus forming a structure terraced from top 
to bottom. Each story is divided into numerous Httle compart- 
ments, the outer tiers of rooms being Hghted by small windows in 
the sides, while those in the interior of the building are dark, and 
are principally used as store-rooms. One of the most singular 
features of these buildings is the absence of any direct communica- 
tion with the outside on the ground floor. The only means of en- 
trance is through a trap-door in the roof, and you ascend, from 
story to story, by means of ladders upon the outside, which are 
drawn up at night, and the population sleep secure from attack from 
without. This method of gaining access to the inside of the house 
is common to all pueblos, and was probably adopted in early times 
as a means of defense against the wild tribes by which they were 
surrounded. 

Almost simultaneously with the Mission Churches of 
New Mexico, the Palacio Real of the governors in Santa 
Fe was built. This is the sole building in the United 
States that can rightly be called a royal palace. It con- 
formed exactly to the domestic and community architec- 
ture of the Indians, though constructed for civic as well 



Native Architecture of New Mexico 247 

as domestic use. After it came under American control, 
its varied and consecutive occupiers, blind to its striking 
originality and, therefore, indifferent to the preservation 
of its purity of style, loaded it down and ruined it by 
vandalistic " improvements." When the movement for 
a recognition of original New Mexican architecture be- 
gan, and the School of American Archeology was estab- 
lished and given control of the old palace one of the first 
duties of the school was the reclamation to original type 
of the palace as far as was possible in order that it might 
conform to modern requirements. At first it was a work 
of elimination, " taking out," writes Dr. Hewett, 

The modern excrescences — milled casings and mantels, papered 
walls, cloth ceilings ; substituting nothing at all — simply laying 
bare the ancient vigas (beams), restoring the old natural lines of 
doors, windows and fire-places. The most passionate reverence 
for the past would not demand a return to dirt floors and yeso- 
covered walls, nor did we restore the mica windows nor the 
festoons of dried Indian ears that formerly decorated the portales. 
However, literalness, or slavish copying, is not the idea in archi- 
tectural style. Variation and elaboration within limits, with re- 
straint that holds everything true to type ; and adaptation to local 
conditions of climate, atmosphere, topography and colour of earth 
and sky; herein lies the secret of great architecture. 

Here, then, we have the two original types of New 
Mexico architecture — the domestic and the community 
or pueblo, — and the two superposed types, viz., the Civic 
and the Mission. 

It should particularly be noted that in all these types, 
and essentially in the two later ones, there are no rigidity 
of line, no absolutely square corners, no fine precision 
of wall — none of the strict mathematical conformity 
demanded by our machine-cursed civilization. Not only 
is the hand of the individualistic builder given free play, 
but there is a something more, a consistent refusal to be 



248 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

bound by squares and plumb-lines, spirit levels and cali- 
pers. On this subject Vierra thus writes : 

Through the common use in both mission and pueblo of only 
the simplest materials — earth and timber, the new of that period, 
although foreign in proportion and purpose, was harmonious with 
the old in character. The actual construction was done by the 
builders of the old order, and gave to the new, through methods 
and workmanship, the free-hand character of the old. If there 
was anything of stiffness or formality about these Missions when 
they left the hand of the builder, the greatest harmonizing influence 
of all — the work of Nature — brought about the final unity. The 
constant erosion of plastic material softened by repair with the 
same material went on in both alike. 

It was perhaps this gradual change through erosion and repair 
that brought about its most interesting exterior character. In 
fact this architecture is hardly to be considered a finished product, 
until this freeing of exterior form and outline has taken place. 

The gradual clearing away of any artificially ornamental ex- 
crescences has left nothing but the essentials beautifully varied 
in outHne. Any superficial ornamentation characteristic of the 
Spanish Colonial that might have been attempted could not stand 
the test of time in adobe. Repair with earth plaster following the 
lines of erosion aided in the softening process, and any hard pre- 
cision of line or ornament had to give way. If any part was not use- 
ful, it was not replaced. That which was not essential did not 
endure, and that which did endure was marvelously enriched with 
a living, flowing quality of free outline and form. 

It is in reality a free-hand architecture, with the living quality of 
a sculptor's work, and that pliant, unaffected and unconfined beauty 
— characteristic of natural growth — is Nature's contribution to 
the final product. Through this contribution, too, the architecture 
is unique in bearing the closest relation to the surrounding land- 
scape. In this sense it is complete, having attained perfection 
through the absence of that precision upon which all other archi- 
tecture seems to depend. Its character is as dependent on the 
absence of precision as is the beauty of natural architectural forms 
abundant in this vicinity. In the surrounding mesas and valleys 
there are architectural forms of nature, produced by erosion on 
time-hardened clay and sandstone, which often bear a startling 
resemblance to great cathedrals. Those who have never recognized 
that quality produced by the same forces of Nature on similar 
material in the New Mexico missions, can hardly escape its signifi- 
cance when brought face to face with the original, and the architect 



Native Architecture of New Mexico 249 

who does not recognize this relation should never attempt an ex- 
pression of this architecture, since its most vital quality is beyond 
his reach. 

The point thus raised by Mr. Vierra cannot be too 
strongly emphasized. New Mexico essentially is a land 
of erosion of great rock masses. It is unique in this re- 
gard. The traveler along the main line of the Santa Fe 
will recall the wonderful sand and wind carvings and ero- 
sions of the great sandstone cliffs that extend for miles 
on each side of the track, soon after leaving Laguna 
and continuously until the Arizona line is reached. Lum- 
mis thus speaks, truthfully too, of the enchanting rock 
formations in the valley of the Enchanted Mesa leading 
to the peerless cliff-city of Acoma : 

From the eastern slope of the Continental Divide the vast sand- 
stone blanket which gives the Southwest a formation unique in 
the world, making it the land of mesas, is cut by winding canyons. 
Between them — and made by them — are the characteristic 
" tables ; " flat-topped, cliff-sided, from a few rods square to many 
miles on a side. Where two of these erosion-clefts from the 
Black Mesa come together like forks of a river to form a mightier 
stream, is one of the typical valleys of New Mexico. Eight or 
ten miles long, a mile to two miles broad, hemmed on either side 
by bright-coloured and fantastically-eroded .sandstone precipices 
five hundred to one thousand feet high ; its trough-like floor, smooth 
to the eye with distance and soft with the mossy gramma grass ; and 
all bathed in that ineffable atmosphere which is half dream and half 
mirage — it seems an enchanted valley if ever human eyes have 
looked upon anything that can deserve those words. Especially 
from some commanding look-out when the evening light is low, 
it is so unearthly in its beauty as no other spot I have ever seen in 
the three Americas. And noblest of all, in that matchless view, are 
the strange, tall, ghostly forms that seem to march with lengthening 
shadows down that magic valley — the fantastic buttes, mesas and 
spires that stand rear-guard of the ages. 

Whether the theory of architectural origin propounded 
by Mr. Vierra be correct or not it is both plausible and 
illuminative. It suggests, too, the necessity of keeping 



250 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

it free from outside and conflicting elements. For in- 
stance, in the accompanying photographs the Mission of 
Cochiti is shown first in its original condition. The second 
photograph gives it after " benevolent vandalism " had 
submerged its originality, individuality and pure charm, 
by substituting a peaked roof for the flat roof, an arched 
columnade portico for the typical Indian porch, and a 
hideous New England steeple of tin for the free handed 
curves of the original pedimented bell-tower. This kind 
of " reform '' and " improvement " cannot too strongly 
be deplored, deprecated and opposed. For, as says Mr. 
Vierra : 

We are only at the beginning of the development of this archi- 
tecture — both the Mission and the Pueblo type, and its combina- 
tions and possibilities are fascinating, though it presents some 
problems. It is of the greatest importance for us to keep it pure 
in the beginning, to establish its character definitely on sound analy- 
sis and adhere to it. Its dignity and beauty will always depend 
on its native purity and simplicity. There is much to be said for 
maintaining its thoroughbred quality, since it is the only type in 
America having its orign in the soil upon which it stands to- 
day. 

If there is confusion at the outset its value to us is lost, and 
confusion will only add to confusion until it is overcome by the 
fate common to most architecture of our time. A striking ex- 
ample of this in its most destructive form has actually overcome even 
the original in some cases. The very structures in the pueblos, and 
the actual work of the Franciscans and the Indians of centuries ago, 
seem no longer sacred. One of the most beautiful of our original 
Missions has been submerged in " reform." What was originally 
a flat pueblo roof is now a peak roof, typical of the California 
Mission. California arches in cement on metal lath hold forth in 
a front where once stood the typical Indian porch, and a New Eng- 
land steeple (of tin) deals it the final blow. It is an excellent 
example of benevolent vandalism, done with the best of inten- 
tions, but an awful example of confusion. 

Exterior arches have no place in this architecture — peak roofs 
are no part of it, and steeples — impossible. Peak roofs, steeples, 
the Roman arch of the Spanish Colonial, and the Moorish arch 
were ruled out through the limitations of adobe as a material in 




Photographs bv the Museum of New Mexico. 

THE MISSION CHURCH AT COCHITI, BEFORE, ANL AFTER, 
" RESTORATION." 



Native Architecture of New Mexico 251 

which these forms could not endure. In place of arches, and serv- 
ing the same purpose, we find a related form through the use of 
heavy wooden capitals and corbels carved in simple design. The 
absence of the true arch is essential in establishing the type. There 
is not a single instance in which the true arch in adobe has endured 
in the exterior, and interior use is limited to one example in a 
small doorway. There are early photographic records in which 
the arch appears, but these only add proof to the theory that adobe 
unsupported by wood or stone cannot be depended upon to bear the 
strain of a superstructure. That this material on the other hand, 
required a sound base, was a potent factor in establishing the 
sturdy character of the Pueblo Indian Mission structures. 

Towers and belfries were perhaps the only features related to the 
Spanish Colonial — though towers both round and square were to 
be found in Indian architecture — but those in the missions con- 
formed so to the general character, through the forms developed 
in adobe by erosion and repair, that their relation to the Spanish 
was lost. The arrangements of porches and exterior balconies 
are as closely related to the Indian, except in the use of carved wood, 
as they are to the Moorish or Spanish, and there is i;io example of 
Spanish Colonial in the United States in which the use of exterior 
balconies is similar or even related. 

In keeping with the principles thus expressed the 
School of American Archaeology was instrumental in 
having its new Art Museum constructed upon pure New 
Mexico Mission lines. Yet here is no slavish copying, 
no servile imitation of a building already in existence. 
At the same time there is no effort after originality. 
Purity of motif has been the keyword. Features from 
three or four of the Mission buildings as well as the 
terraced pueblo structures have been incorporated, not 
only without destroying the unity of the building, but 
clearly enhancing its charm and attraction. Architects 
and artists from all parts of this country, Europe, and 
elsewhere in the world have visited it and practically all 
are unanimous in praise of its architectural dignity, artis- 
tic attractiveness, and perfect adaptability. As Mr. 
Vierra has written: 



252 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

The outlines of the new Museum are terraced, plastic, flowing. 
There are no hard and stiff plumb lines or levels, no exact repe- 
titions or parallelisms, such as mark the California Mission style. 
The symmetry is that of mass, not of exact form. No matter which 
way one looks, or from what vantage point, there is a different archi- 
tectural composition, a new charm, a different pattern and design, 
in which sunlight and ever-moving shadows have a determining 
part. 

The lovely patio is in keeping with its massive battlements, its 
shady cloisters, its carved corbels and primitive pillars and vigas. 
The ceilings of the interior, the floors of the St. Francis auditorium, 
the benches, the great St. Francis mural paintings, the lighting of the 
transept, the carving of the grills, the reproduction of the massive 
doors of Santa Clara and of the Needle's Eye — all merge into a 
complete natural harmony that causes the visitor to wonder and 
admire. 

Thus in the Palace and the Museum the leaders in the 
new movement feel they have laid the foundations for the 
renaissance of New Mexico domestic, civic and ecclesias- 
tical architecture. Many public and other buildings have 
already been erected under this beneficial influence. The 
school for the deaf and dumb is a fine example of mod- 
ern pueblo construction. The new High School, the 
Santa Fe Water and Light Co., the Forestry, the Gross- 
Kelly, the Sunmount Sanitarium buildings and others are 
all in line, and many homes have also been built in har- 
mony with this great general plan to make Santa Fe and 
New Mexico as original and attractive in its architecture 
as its original founders instinctively felt it should be. As 
Mr. Vierra wisely writes : 

In favour of the future development of Indian architecture is its 
great variety, leading to adaptability. To accuse it of monotony 
would be to admit superficial knowledge and lack of observation. 
Its variety in arrangement, outline and proportion is perhaps the 
most fascinating quality in the original. There is no architecture 
presenting such variety in arrangement as is to be found in some of 
our Indian pueblos of from two to four stories in height. From 
the domestic it merges beautifully into the ecclesiastic, and the 
combination of the two has been charmingly expressed in recent 



Native Architecture of New Mexico 253 

construction. Through this combination will perhaps come the 
greatest adaptability to civic purposes. 

Whenever, in the hope of avoiding monotony, we have over- 
whelmed it with California Mission and other alien features, we 
have added not variety, but the monotony of confusion which is the 
most monotonous feature in the architecture of our modern com- 
munities. The results may be interesting but they are not construc- 
tive. They retard the development of the type through misrepre- 
sentation. Such examples are merely representative of that tendency 
to mix types through misunderstanding, that has resulted in the 
general loss of character, dignity and importance in most American 
architecture. 

Character, in this architecture, is not skin-deep ; it must be modeled 
into the building as it is built. An uneven coat of plaster, as is often 
suggested, over rigidly constructed surfaces and outlines, will not 
give it. A timidly formal imitation of a few interesting features of 
the original will not express character. The builder who will use 
viga tips and sawn capitals in rigid formality under a slant shingle 
or tin roof, is expressing in new building the tragedy that has over- 
taken some of the old Mission and native architecture. 

It seems that a frank expression of the original, a practical repro- 
duction of the best that it has to offer, requires more courage than 
some builders possess. That training which concentrates on the 
machine-like precision of factory quality in architecture is most fatal 
to either courage or appreciation. The architect who is to be suc- 
cessful with it need not ignore mathematics, but he must not allow 
mathematical precision to interfere where it has no place, and where 
its absence is essential. He should have in his make-up something 
of the sculptor, for he is dealing with a freedom of sculptural form 
which no other type includes, and upon which the greatest charm of 
this type depends. Its adaptation to domestic, ecclesiastic, and civic 
purposes need not bring about confusion. Its success along these 
lines depends upon the careful avoidance of Spanish Colonial and 
other alien features. That it is adequate as well as adaptable in its 
own characteristic simplicity has been demonstrated in many build- 
ings. 

That it is not likely to be extensively adopted elsewhere, adds to its 
value as a sectional development in its native environment. Besides 
representing the only architecture in America having its foundation 
in the prehistoric time of its locality, it is an expression of our 
earliest history, and it still bears the closest possible relation to its 
surroundings in modern times, even to the extent of being adaptable 
to modern uses. There is no other architecture within the limits of 
the United States in which all this holds true. 



254 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

These, then, were the two types of building, indigenous 
to the soil and well suited to their environment, that the 
Spanish conquistadores and the Franciscan friars found 
when they began the colonization and christianization of 
New Mexico about 1580. The zealous friars, with a 
fervour and energy that were never surpassed, worked so 
devotedly that when Benavides was sent out to super- 
vise the missions, in 1622, he brought with him twenty- 
six new friars to engage in the work and found already 
eleven churches built. Other buildings began to go up 
on every hand. With tireless persistence, with little or 
no help except from the Indians themselves, church after 
church arose. At the different villages of the Zuni, six 
were erected, three among the Hopi, one at Acoma, one 
at Isleta, etc. 

These Franciscan friars were one in spirit and training 
with Junipero Serra and his coadjutors who, later, came 
to California. Yet the ecclesiastical buildings they 
erected were entirely different, though, as has been sug- 
gested, they had the same common origin. There must 
have been something peculiarly racial, as well as en- 
vironmental, in the divergence. On this subject Vierra 
conclusively argues : 

The Pueblo Indian Mission architecture of New Mexico is not 
related to California Mission architecture except in original pur- 
pose. It is prehistoric American in character and construction. 
The fact that its proportions may be Spanish perhaps explains the 
tendency among modern architects to assume that it is Spanish in 
character, and in building they stand ready to supply Spanish ele- 
ments which were never a part of it, and which the Franciscans 
themselves did not feel called upon to introduce. Spanish propor- 
tion expressed in Indian character does not make Spanish architec- 
ture, any more than Greek proportion in Egyptian character makes 
Greek architecture. . . . 

In considering the Mission structure too much has been made 
of its relation to Spanish architecture. It is an error natural to 
architects who, under the influence of conventional training, are in- 



Native Architecture of New Mexico 255 

clined to see everything through the cold and formal medium of 
mathematical precision and symmetry, and the conventional forms 
of geometric ornament. What the Franciscans might have done had 
they been able to obtain Spanish workmanship and material has 
little to do with the type as it stands, except to emphasize its Indian 
character. 

It is an interesting fact that none of the New Mexico Missions 
originally built of stone have endured, so that we have no knowledge 
of such features as roof-lines and belfries, and perhaps arches. 
The ruined walls that remain in the abandoned stone pueblos indi- 
cate that Indian methods were followed here as well. Had they 
endured they might have presented a variation — being more rigid 
in outline and not subject to the final harmonizing influence of 
erosion. 

The earliest explorers among the Pueblo Indians returned with 
glowing accounts of a people who built great cities. It is reason- 
able to suppose that the Franciscans were confident of being able to 
build their Missions among a people who built cities, using the ma- 
terial and methods that served the native builders. It cannot be 
said with certainty that the Franciscans, had they been able, would 
have built of stone, lime, and tile, as they did in California 150 years 
later. There, the Indians had no permanent architecture of their 
own, and the Franciscans either brought trained workmen with them 
or trained the Indians in Spanish methods. 

It is not improbable that, among the Pueblos, the Franciscans 
turned a seeming poverty of material to their decided advantage, 
perhaps realizing that by building in harmony with their surround- 
ings they would establish a closer sympathy with the inhabitants 
than if they had built an imposing, an arrogantly foreign cathedral in 
the midst of simple and well organized homes. The fact remains 
that they used the simple adobe and wood of the Indian builders, and 
where they built with stone in pueblos using the same material it was 
after the Indian method. 

So it is that either through the limitations of environment, or 
through appreciation by the Franciscans of the advantages of har- 
monious construction, or through both, we have in the New Mexico 
Missions a new type — quite distinct from the Spanish Colonial. 

New Mexico has made a fine beginning towards the 
perfection of that which is indigenous to its own soil. 
Thousands will come, the traveled and cultured of the 
world, familiar with the highest expression of the Gothic, 
Grecian, Roman, Egyptian, Hindoo, Tartarian, Chinese, 



256 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

Japanese and other forms of architecture who will stand 
before the Art Museum in Santa Fe and other less pre- 
tentious specimens of New Mexican architecture and will 
find in them a peculiar attractiveness, a simple and funda- 
mental purity which cannot fail to claim admiration and 
worthy praise. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE PUEBLO OF TAOS 

Taos — pronounced Towse, in one syllable, and not 
Tay-os, to rhyme with chaos — is the northernmost of 
the Pueblos of New Mexico, and of the United States. 
It is the last outpost of the civilization of the sedentary 
and home-loving, field-cultivating Indians before the 
home of the wild and nomad Ute, Comanche and other 
of the plains Indians were reached. 

Ever since it has been known to the white man Taos 
has been a place of romance. Visited by all the earlier 
explorers who traversed the Southwest, it was a rendez- 
vous well known to the American trappers. Here came 
Kit Carson long before the American occupancy of New 
Mexico, and here he settled down and made his perma- 
nent home for many years. He, with many other trad- 
ers, scouts and trappers, made this their outfitting post for 
their expeditions to the West and North, even to the far- 
away Pacific, and it rivaled, if not surpassed, in commer- 
cial importance, its Southern neighbour of greater Span- 
ish pretensions, Santa Fe. 

In those days it was no uncommon thing to find the 
narrow streets of the Spanish-Mexican town crowded 
with visitors, dressed in the rude costumes of the pioneers 
and trappers. Great strings of mules strained in the 
harness and dragged gigantic canvas-covered prairie- 
schooners, with their single or double trailers, bearing 
supplies, merchandise and mining machinery for those 
who were fortunate enough to need them. Wild mus- 

257 



258 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

tangs and broncos dashed hither and thither, ridden by 
men who appeared even wilder than the animals they 
rode. Here and there a white man, or an Indian of 
striking dignity of mien and character might be seen 
walking through the commoner mass, and adding a new 
note to the scene. Such men as Carlos Beaubien, Colonel 
Ceran St. Vrain, Lucien B. Maxwell, — who gained the 
great Maxwell grant from the Mexican government, Gov- 
ernor Bent, and earlier still. Padre Martinez, who pub- 
lished, in Taos, the first newspaper issued west of the 
Missouri River, in what is now United States territory. 
This was in 1835. He was one of those proud and 
haughty educated Spaniards who regarded the American 
as an intruder. This land belonged to the Spanish by 
right of conquest, and not one foot of it would he have 
yielded to the hated gringo. It is generally conceded 
that he was largely instrumental in fomenting the In- 
dian and Mexican rebellion of 1847, the chief battle of 
which was fought at the Pueblo of Taos, where the old 
Franciscan Mission Church, built over a century before, 
was battered down by the cannon balls of the American 
troops under the command of Col. Sterling Price. 

It must not be overlooked that there really are three 
places called Taos, each of which has a personality, an 
individuality, of its own. First in order of founding 
is the Indian Pueblo. This is known by the thousands 
of photographs and engravings of it seen in numberless 
publications of the past fifty years, its several-storied 
communal houses, built of adobe, making a striking and 
fascinating picture, redolent of mystery, surprise, and 
Indian secrecy. 

They were first seen by the white race in 1541 by 
Francisco Barrio-Nuevo, a captain of Coronado's Expe- 
dition, who found a wall of protection around the pueblo, 



The Pueblo of Taos 259 

part of which still stands. In July, 1598, Juan de Onate 
visited Taos, and received the submission of its proud 
and haughty people, and a few weeks later Padre Fran- 
cisco de Zamora established a Franciscan mission for 
them and became their guide in the new religion their 
conquerors forced upon them. In 1629 the Pueblo had a 
population of 2,500 inhabitants. When the great In- 
dian rebellion of 1680 — that for a time threatened the 
complete overthrow of Spanish rule in New Mexico — 
broke out, Taos rose with the rest of the Indians and 
drove out the hated invader. But, like the rest, it yielded 
to the power, or cajolements, or both, of Diego de Var- 
gas, and never again successfully revolted against the 
outside rule — Spanish, Mexican, American — forced 
upon it. 

To-day its members are singularly free from the white 
man's influence. They still preserve their aboriginal 
customs of society, religion and family. While they do 
not absolutely prohibit the whites from visiting them, 
there is no great sociability or cordiality in their inter- 
course. To the artist colony of Taos this aloofness is an 
advantage. It secures more primitive conditions for 
their pictures, more quaintness, strangeness, in the life 
of their subjects. 

While the Indian is almost perpetually engaged in 
religious ceremonial, the whites know little of this, save 
at the one great festival of San Geronimo, which oc- 
curs in late September. For scores of miles around 
Mexicans and Americans spend days in preparation for 
their visit to this annual festival. At Fernando de Taos 
— the modern Taos — the native Mexican population is 
as busy and excited as a hive of bees. They are strug- 
gling to get in their harvest, do their annual trading, 
cook up great supplies of foods and dulces for visiting 



260 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

relatives and friends, weaving additional blankets, making 
new festival dresses, hats and gewgaws of a general char- 
acter, so that they will be fully prepared for this one 
great event of the year. 

At the pueblo the bustle and hurry, the industry and 
expenditure of energy, are not less in exercise, though 
the stolid and quiet demeanour of the Indians would de- 
ceive all but the well-informed. 

Herds of ponies are dashing around the circular en- 
closures tramping out the yellow wheat, urged to a fast 
trot by a happy, singing Indian boy who uses his long 
whip lash on the laggards ; the squaws are busy replaster- 
ing the church and baking in the out-door oval adobe 
ovens. Bands of Apaches arrive several days before the 
festival and their tepees dot the camping sites near the 
Pueblo. As soon as located the squaws begin to weave 
their beautiful baskets and gather a harvest of wild plums, 
which they dry in the sun and pack back to their own 
country for winter use. 

These camps of the Jicarilla Apaches are one of the 
most picturesque sights of the occasion, with the chil- 
dren and papooses, dogs, ponies, tepees, costumes and 
busy camp-life lived in true plain Indian style, even to 
cooking and eating out-of-doors, after the manner of 
their ancestors of a thousand years ago. 

Long trains of fruit wagons, canvas-covered, begin 
to arrive from as far away as Embudo, Alcalde, Espanola, 
and during the last days of September come the blanket- 
weavers from Chimayo, and the pottery-makers from San 
Juan and Santa Clara Pueblos with their wares. The 
neighbouring Picuris Indians make their annual visit, 
crossing the mountain trails from the south. 

Merry-go-rounds are erected, generally at the last mo- 
ment, and the native Mexican, American and Indian chil- 



The Pueblo of Taos 261 

dren all push and struggle together for places on the 
favourite wooden ponies. On the evening of September 
29th the bustle and confusion is at its height. Automo- 
bile, camp-wagon and equestrian parties arrive in such 
numbers that the hotels and rooming-places begin to over- 
flow. Scores of people bring tents, or camp out in less 
pretentious fashion. The beautiful Sunset Dance takes 
place at the Pueblo between 5 and 6 p. m. Later on sev- 
eral bailes (dances) are in full swing and the crowd re- 
tires late, only to be up and gone early the next morning, 
when the rush is Puebloward to witness the great relay 
race which starts about 8 o'clock. This race is the prin- 
cipal event of the day and is worth a journey from far 
places to witness. It is really a prayer ceremony, a hal- 
lelujah of thanksgiving, the Indians' old-time Harvest 
Festival, celebrated long before the Spanish conquista- 
dores set foot on New Mexican soil. 

The race is followed by a dance, and about noon a 
recess is taken until later in the afternoon, when the 
ceremonial sports of the Delight Makers entertain the 
crowd until sunset. 

The spectacular sight of the relay race is a scene never 
to be forgotten. The four hundred yards of race track 
reminds one who has seen it of the river Thames on the 
day of the great annual regatta between the crews of Ox- 
ford and Cambridge. One sees the same moving kalei- 
doscopic colours and forms, only in place of the silvery 
gray river over which the flow of colour moves, one sees 
the gray sand of the track shining in the September sun- 
light. 

What a sight it is to see the great five-storied com- 
munal buildings, and especially the north Pyramid, over- 
flowing with life and colour! All the plaza in front is 
packed with the motley crowd, cheering and urging on 



262 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

the runners as they struggle to the end of the course where 
fresh partners crouch to spring away and take up the 
burden of the long race. Cheers rend the air, individual 
shouts and yells, addressed to some particular favourite 
or laggard, occasionally pierce through the vocal con- 
fusion, and the loud applause that greets any particular 
spurt of speed or exhibition of good generalship is echoed 
and reechoed even to the mountains and ravines to the 
east. 

This race and its later accompaniments is a sight once 
seen that can never be forgotten. 

It should not be overlooked that it was here at Taos 
that Thierlieu Lieurance gained so many of the melodies 
referred to in the chapter on Indian music. 

But there is another Taos besides the Indian Pueblo, 
and that is the Spanish or Mexican town of Taos, founded 
late in the eighteenth century, and dedicated to San 
Fernando de Taos. This has been shortened to the curt, 
one-syllabled Taos, and this is the Mexican and American 
town we think of as the home of the Art Colony, and 
where the business of the whole valley is transacted. 
Here Kit Carson's home is shown, and the great scout's 
grave. Near by is the grave of that restless, proud spirit, 
Padre Martinez, who never forgave the gringos. The 
place is redolent of memories of these old heroes of a by- 
gone age. But it is also the home of a large number of 
the Penitente Brothers, to whom I have largely devoted 
a later chapter. Here it was from one of their moradas 
that I secured the photographs of the Christ on the Cross, 
Saints and the Carre ta del Muerto (Carriage of death), 
one of which is here reproduced. 

There used, also, to be one of the most interesting of 
the old Franciscan Mission structures located here. It 
was used, however, as a parish church, and the good 




PJwtograph by George ll'h.arton James. 

" CHRIST OX THE CROSS," IX THE MORADA AT TAOS. 



The Pueblo of Taos 263 

priest, having a perpetual war to wage against the rav- 
ages of the weather, and to keep the church in a proper 
condition for worship, resolved to settle the whole prob- 
lem by pulling down the old building and substituting a 
modern one in its stead. The fact that he bore the larger 
part of the cost attests to the nobility and self-abnegation 
of his beautiful soul, yet does not lessen our regret that 
the old historic structure has gone. 

A few miles away, however, is the third Taos, known 
as Ranches de Taos, and here compensation is found in 
the loss of the San Fernando de Taos Mission in an- 
other quaint Mission, built, I believe, in 1778, and which 
is well worth a visit. 

Taos is not to be reached immediately by any rail- 
way, though the branch line of the Denver and Rio 
Grande which runs from Denver to Santa Fe, has a 
station 28 miles away. From this station one goes by 
auto-stage. There are two or three stage-lines but the 
informed never goes by any other stage than that owned 
by John Gunn. John used to run the old stage-coaches, 
and he and his father owned the old toll-bridge across 
the Rio Grande, deep down in the canyon gloom through 
which one must pass in order to reach Taos. 

When the automobile came to stay John did not hesi- 
tate to adopt the new method of locomotion. In spite of 
rough roads, which no amount of persuasion could get 
Mexican and other poco-tiempo-Xomng officials to im- 
prove, John put auto-stages on his line, and proceeded to 
run them himself. The same individuality he had exer- 
cised in operating his old Concord wagon stages was im- 
mediately apparent in his operation of the auto-stages, 
and every traveler of the Southwest who has been over 
the road has some story to tell of John and his interesting 
methods. 



264 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

John is a daring driver, but far from a reckless one. 
There is a vast difference between the two. Going down 
the steep road into the canyon of the Rio Grande, and 
cHmbing out on the other side, requires daring, combined 
with skill and knowledge. One instinctively feels that 
John Gunn possesses the proper combination, and you 
whirl around dangerous curves, look down frightful 
precipices and gaze off where the road runs into nothing- 
ness with perfect equanimity because he is at the wheel. 
And in and through it all his quiet and quaint humour 
flows like a golden thread. Just at the most critical 
time, when the timid tenderfoot is holding her breath 
and leaning over to the left because of the " fearful and 
yawning precipice " to the right, John nonchalantly in- 
terjects one of his most humorous sallies, and one laughs 
in spite of " fears within"" or " foes without." 

The ride itself is a wonderfully scenic one. Through 
miles of pinion and cedar, in sight of the snowy peaks of 
the range that hovers protectingly over Taos, until the 
deep and gloomy canyon of the Rio Grande is reached, 
one dashes, over good roads. Here one gasps at the very 
idea of daring to brave those awful deeps. But it means 
nothing to John. After a careful survey of tires, engine, 
brakes and the strapped-on baggage John " let's her go, 
Gallagher," and without a quiver, gets you across to the 
other side. If it is meal-time, however, you stop long 
enough at the old Dunn hotel down beneath, to get a real, 
old-fashioned, hearty, satisfactory meal of pioneer days 
and then start on the upward climb well fortified — at 
least as far as the stomach is concerned — for whatever 
may occur. 

Taos is the northermost of the Pueblos of the Rio 
Grande. It is the most interesting of them all, yet there 
is not one of these Pueblos that is not worth visiting. 



The Pueblo of Taos 265 

Mr. and Mrs. Saunders' book, referred to in the bibli- 
ography, will give the interested reader further knowledge 
of them, and he who visits New Mexico, and is wise, will 
make it his business to see them all. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE ANTIQUITIES OF NEW MEXICO. ITS ANCIENT 
DWELLINGS — ITS MISSION CHURCHES , 

Many of the other chapters of this book have been 
written in vain if they have not demonstrated to the 
reader how full New Mexico is of areas of antiquity. 
From one end to the other, in all directions, it abounds 
in places of deepest interest. Indeed it must truthfully 
be said that largely within its confines the science of 
American Archaeology has been born, and its leaders and 
masters trained. Here, in the earliest years came Simp- 
son, Powell, Stevenson, Jackson, Bandelier, Holmes, 
Gushing, Matthews, Ten Kate, Fewkes, the Mooneys, 
Hodge, Hough, and finally, Hewett, the directing genius 
of the School of American Archaeology, together with the 
accomplished and growing band he is gathering around 
him, including Chapman, Neusbaum, Walter, Vierra, 
Harrington and others. 

It is not my purpose, in this brief and merely sug- 
gestive chapter, even to outline the location and gen- 
eral description of the chief of New Mexico's antiquities. 
Many references are made to them throughout the volume, 
and the interested reader is advised that from no frag- 
mentary sketch can he begin to gain the knowledge he 
needs. Reasonably complete information may be ob- 
tained from Dr. Edgar L. Hewett of Santa Fe, N. M., of 
all that will interest the student, the serious explorer, 
or the casual tourist, in the papers and reports of the 
School of American Archaeology. Suffice it to say that 

266 



The Antiquities of New Mexico 267 

in this field alone any intelligent person can find ma- 
terial of sufficient interest to justify a lengthy annual 
visit to New Mexico for an average lifetime, and the 
subject would then be far from exhausted. In a volume 
now about to be sent to the press ^ I have given as full 
accounts, illustrated, as is possible, of all the Clifif and 
Caveate ruins of this fascinating area. 

The same impossible sense of limitation is felt in 
dealing with the old Franciscan Mission Churches of 
New Mexico. No chapter can do the subject justice. 
One must read their history in the other chapters and 
then fill in the pictures as they arise. In each Indian com- 
munity the zealous padres forced, cajoled, won, pleaded 
their way. They had but one object, one work. Their 
slogan was the exclamation of Saint Paul : " This one 
thing I do." They had set forth from Spain, and later, 
from Mexico, to convert the heathen aborigines of New 
Mexico to the joys and the heavenly assurances of Chris- 
tianity. Under the teaching and guidance of Mother 
Church they were safe from damnation, here and here- 
after; without it, there was no hope. Hence their fren- 
zied zeal, their indifference to danger, their absolute dis- 
regard of martyrdom, their devoted persistence in their 
self-imposed, arduous and ungratefully received tasks. 
The Indians in the main hated them. They misunder- 
stood their purpose. They refused to be saved; and all 
this in spite of the fact that the padres reported thousands, 
hundreds of thousands, who were already caught by the 
" gospel net." 

The King of Spain, his Council, the Viceroy of New 
Mexico, and, of course, the leaders of the Franciscan 

1 The Prehistoric Cliff and Cave Dwellings of the South West. 
To be published in 1920 by the Radiant Life Press, Pasadena, Cali- 
fornia. 



268 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

order, were alike urgent in pushing forward this work, 
and delighted at all new reports of enlarged spiritual 
progress. As quickly as possible friars were sent to oc- 
cupy the new fields, and each man was urged, expected, 
to secure the erection of a Mission Church in the Pueblo 
to which he was sent. Hence there began to spring up, 
with mushroom-like rapidity, churches on every hand, 
and this a full century before the advent of the Francis- 
cans into California. Zuni, Acoma, the far-away Hopi, 
Isleta, San Juan de los Caballeros, Santa Fe, Santa Clara, 
Santo Domingo, Zia, Jemez, San Ildefonso, Santa Cruz, 
Picuris, Pecos, Tesuque, and far-away Taos, In the north, 
speedily had their own buildings, and later, the Villa 
of Albuquerque was blessed by the addition of its church 
structure. Indians and settlers alike must be provided 
for, and places like Chimayo sprang into existence around 
the hallowed Sanctuario. 

As I have shown in the chapter on Mission Architec- 
ture, these structures were of an entirely different type 
from the later California Mission buildings. They be- 
long to another people and an entirely different location, 
and it is a matter of great congratulation that at last New 
Mexico has found herself upon this matter and set it 
forth with scientific accuracy and literary skill before 
the world. 

For the history of these Mission churches and their 
connection with the tragic rebellion of 1680, and of the 
never-ending struggles between the new and the old re- 
ligions, the reader must be referred to Governor L. 
Bradford Prince's excellent work — The Mission 
Churches of New Mexico. 



r 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE AMERICAN "PASSION PLAY 

For many years Europearrs and Americans have flocked 
to see the famous Passion Play of Oberammergau. Noted 
writers have vied with each other in depicting the deep 
earnestness with which the peasantry of this remote vil- 
lage reenact the chief scenes in the Passion of Christ. 
Photographs by thousands and films by the hundreds of 
reels have been made of the play so that it could be 
brought to non-travelers the civilized world over, until 
now the Oberammergau Passion Play is almost as familiar 
as household words. 

Yet if one were to affirm that in the heart of New 
Mexico a score of Passion Plays might be seen each 
year, each and every one of them conducted with desper- 
ate earnestness, and a grim and stern fidelity to the cruel 
punishments inflicted upon the Saviour of mankind, and 
that each year there is every reason to suppose that 
more than one devotee loses his life through actual crw- 
ciUxion, it need not be surprising if such affirmation were 
met with scornful incredulity. Apropos of this incredul- 
ity let me relate the following personal experience. 

Twenty-five or more years ago I gave a lecture in the 
State of New York, before a learned Association, upon 
the American Southwest, wherein I portrayed several 
peculiar phases of the lives of the simple primitive peo- 
ples — Indians and Mexicans. Among other ceremonies 
which I described were those of the Penitente Brothers 

269 



270 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

— the self-whippers and self-crucifiers — whose rites I 
had seen. 

The morning following my lecture the President of 
the Association apologized to its members for the wild 
and incredible stories I had told, as no less an authority 
than the Encyclopedia Britannica explicitly stated that the 
last procession of the self-whippers, the penitentes, or 
flagellant brothers, had taken place in Lisbon, Spain, 
in the year 1820, and of course, it was preposterous to 
imagine that such events could occur in the heart of the 
United States, in this advanced year of our Lord. As 
soon as I was informed of this criticism I appeared be- 
fore the Association, absolved the president of any ill in- 
tent, but assured him that my eyesight bore me far more 
reliable testimony than all the encyclopedias on earth. 
He might believe that the penitentes, the Hopi snake- 
dancers, and the Navaho fire-dancers were impossible, and 
the Encyclopedia Britannica might assert they did not 
exist, but in such cases I must respectfully, modestly, yet 
positively affirm that my authority was superior even 
to that of so hoary, complacent, and recognized a standby 
as the time-honoured Encyclopedia. 

The attitude of the president of the New York Asso- 
ciation is easy to understand. It does seem incredible 
that in this age there should be people in our highly civi- 
lized land who adhere to customs so strange and foreign 
to the thought of those who are the exponents of its 
modern culture. The penitentes, however, not only ex- 
isted at the time when I spoke, but they exist to-day. 
In spite of censure, ostracism, and the ban of Mother 
Church these simple-minded, ignorant peons follow the 
customs handed down to them from the centuries of the 
past, and with a steadfast devotion, as pathetic as it is 
lamentable, still whip themselves until the blood streams 



The American Passion Play 271 

down their bare backs as they go their wearisome way 
from their moradas to their chosen " hills of Calvary." 
This practice of flagellation is by no means new. For 
centuries it has been followed in individual cases by 
hermits, monks, nuns and others, who sought by their self- 
punishments not only the discipline their consciences dic- 
tated that they deserved for their sins, but also the re- 
ward of those who shared the punishments of Christ 
prior to His Crucifixion. Their favourite quotations 
were : 

Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to 
try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you ; but re- 
joice, inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, 
when his glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with ex- 
ceeding joy. — I Peter iv, 12-13. 

We are joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, 
that we may be also glorified together. — Romans viii, 17. 

Knowing that as ye are partakers of the sufferings (of Christ) 
so shall ye be also of the consolation. — 2 Cor. i, 7. 

It is a faithful saying : For if we be dead with him, we shall also 
live with him : if we suffer, we shall also reign with him : if we deny 
him, he also will deny us. — 2 Timothy ii, 11-12. 

The reasoning of the penitential order is very simple. 
In effect it is as follows : Christ is our Exemplar and 
Saviour. While He did not whip Himself, He was 
scourged on His way to the cross, the curse of which 
He willingly bore on our account. As He willingly bore 
His suffering though inflicted by others, so should we 
bear them inflicted by ourselves or others, that, thereby, 
we may be accounted worthy to partake of the highest 
joys of heaven which He has gone to prepare for us. 

Boileau in his fascinatingly interesting Historia Flagel- 
lantium, traces the custom of self -whipping from the 
earliest ages, and devotes considerable space to showing 
its practice among the Carmelites, Cistercians, Trap- 
pists, Jesuits, Dominicans, and Franciscans. But it was 



272 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

among the more stern and ascetic of the latter brother- 
hood that the Order of Flagellantes became a recognized 
society. The sect first made its appearance in Italy in 
the year 1210, and the monk, St. Justin of Padua, gives 
the following account of it in the Chronicon Ursitiiis 
Basiliensis} 

When all Italy was sullied with crimes of every kind, a certain 
sudden superstition, hitherto unknown to the world, first seized the 
inhabitants of Perusa, afterwards the Romans, and then almost all 
the nations of Italy. To such a degree were they affected with the 
fear of God, that noble as well as ignoble persons, young and old, 
even children five years of age, would go naked about the streets 
without any sense of shame, walking in public, two and two, in the 
manner of solemn procession. Every one of them held in his hand 
a scourge, made of leather thongs, and with tears and groans they 
lashed themselves on their backs till the blood ran : all the while 
weeping and giving tokens of the same bitter affliction, as if they had 
really been spectators of the passion of our Saviour, imploring the 
forgiveness of God and His Mother, and praying that He who had 
been appeased by the repentance of so many sinners, would not dis- 
dain theirs. And not only in the day time, but likewise during the 
nights, hundreds, thousands, and ten thousands of these penitents 
ran, notwithstanding the rigour of winter, about the streets and in 
the churches, with lighted wax candles in their hands, and preceded 
by the priests, who carried crosses and banners along with them, 
and with humility prostrated themselves before the altars : the same 
scenes were to be seen in small towns and villages ; so that the 
mountains and the fields seemed to resound alike the voice of men 
who were crying to God. All musical instruments and love songs 
ceased to be heard. The only music that prevailed both in town and 
country was that of the lugubrious voice of the penitent, whose 
mournful accents might have moved hearts of flint : and even the 
eyes of the obdurate sinner could not refrain from tears. Nor were 
women exempt from the general spirit of devotion we mention : for 
not only those among the common people, but also matrons and 
young ladies of noble families, would perform the same mortifica- 
tions with modesty in their own rooms. Then those who were at 
enmity with one another became again friends. Usurers and rob- 
bers hastened to restore their ill-gotten riches to their right owners. 

1 As quoted by Rev. Wm. M. Cooper in his History of the Rod. 
W. Reeves, London. 



The American Passion Play 273 

Others, who were contaminated with different crimes, confessed 
them with humility, and renounced their vanities. Gaols were 
opened ; prisoners were delivered ; and banished persons permitted to 
return to their native habitations. So many and so great works of 
sanctity and Christian charity, in short, were then performed by both 
men and women, that it seemed as if a universal apprehension had 
seized mankind, that the divine power was preparing either to 
consume them by fire or destroy them by shaking the earth, or some 
other of those means which divine justice knows how to employ for 
avenging crimes. Such a sudden repentance, which had thus dif- 
fused itself all over Italy and had even reached other countries, not 
only the unlearned, but wise persons also admired. They wondered 
whence such a vehement fervour of piety could have proceeded : 
especially since such public penances and ceremonies had been un- 
heard of in former times, had not been approved by the sovereign 
pontiff, nor recommended by any preacher or person of eminence ; 
but had taken their origin among simple persons, whose example 
both learned and unlearned had alike followed. 

To St. Anthony, of Padua, — the beloved saint of the 
Franciscan order, the miracle worker, the monk who was 
so pure in heart that God visited upon him the inestimable 
and blessed privilege of holding the infant babe, Jesus, in 
his arms, — is accorded the distinction, fanatical or praise- 
worthy as the reader may regard it, of having organized 
the solemn processions of flagellantes that, for centuries, 
continued to be seen throughout Latin Europe. In 1349, 
during the time when the Great Plague was raging, they 
appeared in Germany, and from the chronicle of Albert 
of Strasburg we read that two hundred of the self-whip- 
pers came from Schwaben to Spira, under one principal 
and two subordinate rulers, whose commands they im- 
plicitly obeyed. Here is Albert's account : ^ 

They were met by crowds of people. Placing themselves within 
a circle drawn on the ground, they stripped, leaving on their bodies 
only a breech-cloth. They then walked with arms outstretched like 
a cross round and round the circle for a time, finally prostrating 
themselves on the ground. They soon after rose, each striking his 

1 As quoted in Cooper's History of the Rod. 



274 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

neighbour with a scourge, armed with knots and four iron points, 
regulating their blows by the singing of psalms. At a certain signal 
the discipline ceased, and they threw themselves first on their knees, 
then flat on the ground, groaning and sobbing. On rising, the 
leader gave a short address, exhorting them to implore the mercy 
of God upon their benefactors and enemies, and also on the souls 
in purgatory. This was followed by another prostration, and then 
another discipline. Those who had taken charge of the clothes now 
came forward, and went through the same ceremonies. 

Hence it will be seen that the penitentes of the Ameri- 
can Southwest — for they are to be found alike in South- 
ern Colorado, Southern Utah, Eastern Arizona, and New 
Mexico, — have an ancient and honoured paternity. 

My first experiences with the penitentes began in Raton, 
New Mexico, in 1889. There I saw the procession of 
self-whippers, witnessed a crucifixion, attended the scary 
midnight representation of the horrors of the earth- 
quake that shook the earth after Our Lord's death, and 
learned some of the songs of the Brothers of Light. 

Soon after this I read Charles F. Lummis's accounts of 
the same ceremonials as witnessed by him at San Mateo, 
New Mexico,^ and the Rev. A. M. Darley sent me copies 
of his La Hermandad, which was published in Pueblo, 
Colorado, in April, 1890. Mr. Darley received his in- 
formation from a converted Hermano Mayor — Chief 
Brother — of the Morada del Llano, and its publica- 
tion well nigh caused a dangerous uprising among the 
ignorant Mexican population of Southern Colorado. 
Lummis in his larger work, published in 1893, says: 

Up to within a decade the order in this Territory numbered some 
thousands, with fraternities in towns of every county. Their strong- 
holds were in Taos, Mora, and Rio Arriba counties where ten years 
ago they numbered respectively, 500. 300, and 1000 members, approxi- 
mately. Los Griegos, a hamlet just below Albuquerque, was an- 

1 See Strange Corners of Our Country, pp. 90-93, and Land of 
Poco Tiernfjo, pp. 79-108. 




Pliotograpli hv Cc.nur ll'h,n-l,n- Junics. 

THE PENITENTE CROSS AT SAN MATEO. 



The American Passion Play 275 

other hot-bed of them, and many dwelt in the fastnesses of the 
Sandia Mountains east of Albuquerque. In 1867 there were 900 
within a radius of ten miles from Taos. In scores of lonely canyons 
throughout the Territory, the traveler may see to this day the de- 
serted, low, stone houses with huge crosses leaning in slow decay 
against their sides — tokens of the bloody rites which the surround- 
ing hills once witnessed. The order was too strong in earlier days to 
be excommunicated at one fell swoop ; and the Catholic Church — 
to which all the Penitentes claim allegiance — went at the work 
with prudent deliberation, lopping off a head here and a head there 
in a quiet way, which carried its full lesson without provoking 
rebellion. The policy has been a successful one and has been un- 
flinchingly maintained. Town after town has dropped its Holy 
Week celebrations, fraternity after fraternity has melted away to 
nothingness. In the year 1888 but three towns in the Territory had 
Penitente processions ; and but one — San Mateo, in the western 
end of Valencia County — enjoyed a crucifixion. 

I questioned the accuracy of this statement when it 
was made, for I, myself, have witnessed penitente cere- 
monies since 1889 in ten different moradas, and in this 
year of Our Lord, 1920, I venture the assertion that 
there are twenty or more moradas in the four states I 
have named, in connection with which the full ceremonies, 
excepting perhaps the crucifixion, take place. There 
has been much opposition on the part of both whites and 
Spanish-Americans of the higher class to allowing the 
facts to be known, and those who practice the rites have 
been opposed to publicity ever since they learned the bitter 
resentment with which protestants regarded their activi- 
ties. In this, as in all cases where religious antagonisms 
are aroused, misrepresentation and falsification have pre- 
vailed. In one historical work on New Mexico, other- 
wise fairly reliable, the author claims that the " suffer- 
ers were often the most wicked and abandoned criminals," 
and contends that the exhibitions were " degrading to 
the Christian Faith." 

I am free to confess that to me it seems that, if this 



276 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

first statement be true, the self-whipping would have a 
most beneficial effect. I have "yet to find, in my not al- 
together limited experience, a " wicked and abandoned 
criminal " who has had the grace publicly to confess his 
wickedness and seek some measure of purging by per- 
sonal flagellation. 

As to its being degrading to the Christian faith that is 
purely a matter of personal opinion. I am inclined to 
have more faith in the simple, stern earnestness of peo- 
ple who will whip themselves for their wrong-doings than 
I have in the professions of some people who never for- 
sake their luxurious and sensuous lives even though they 
make weekly protest that they are followers of the meek 
and lowly Jesus who had not where to lay His head. It 
is easy to sing with unction the hymn : 

Nearer, my God, to Thee, 
E'en though it be a Cross 
That raiseth me, 

but it is far from easy to embrace or kiss the Cross and 
actually suffer some, even, of its agony. 

Hence I have had no hesitancy in preparing this full 
and reliable account — for I personally vouch for its de- 
tailed accuracy — of the doings of Los Hermanos de 
Penitentes (The Penitent Brothers). 

To those who wish to study the history of whipping as 
a means of grace I commend Boileau's History of Flagel- 
lation before referred to. Everything written upon the 
subject since the time of his book quotes extensively 
from it. 

From the time of San Antonio de Padua to the advent 
of the Franciscan friars in the New World, the penitentes 
have had a varied history. Sometimes encouraged, at 
other times fulminated against by the popes, the spirit 



The American Passion Play 277 

of desire to humiliate themselves has remained, and soon 
after the Franciscan Missionaries were distributed and 
settled in New Mexico the self-whippers began to ap- 
pear. 

In the cathedral at Santa Fe, in a manuscript dated 
September 17, 1794, is what is supposed to be the oldest 
church record pertaining to the penitentes in the confines 
of what is now the United States. It is headed: " In- 
formation given to Governor Chacon by the Reverend 
P. Custadio Cayentano Jose Bernal," and a free transla- 
tion is as follows: 

In each of the two related villages (Santa Cruz and Santa Fe) is 
founded the Venerable Third Order of Penitentes. This order has 
been in existence since the earliest years of the Conquest, although 
the exact year is not known. It is established with the previous 
permission of the Prelates of our Holy Religion, as of right its 
immediate Superiors. Furthermore, to them pertains the right to 
know and regulate its affairs as necessarily follows from many 
declaratory and confirmatory Bulls of many Popes of Rome. 

The rites as actually conducted to-day are somewhat 
as follows. The customs at various moradas are not ex- 
actly the same. The Chief Brothers have considerable 
latitude and there have been slight variations in every 
celebration witnessed. But I have checked up my own 
observations with those of others who have seen the 
ceremonies on several occasions. 

Wherever the penitentes live in large enough numbers 
to form a brotherhood, they erect a morada for a meet- 
ing-place. They then proceed to elect ten officers, who, 
though supposed to be elected annually, often serve for 
a period of years. They are: i. The Hermano Mayor 
(Older or Chief Brother). He is the head of the local 
organization, has general oversight of its affairs, di- 
rects its activities, and sees that the other officers per- 
form their respective duties. As his name implies he is 



278 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

also regarded as an older brother to whom the members 
may appeal for help when in distress of any kind. He 
settles disputes between the brothers, and often between 
his members and outsiders. When he is a man of good 
sound sense and discretion he has great influence, quite 
equal to that of most of the priests in their churches. 

2. The Celador (Warden). This officer is the care- 
taker of the morada, and under the direction of the Chief 
Brother carries out the sentences imposed upon members 
of the brotherhood for their misdeeds. 

3. The Coadjutor (Helper) cleanses the scourges used 
by the flagellantes in their exercises, and he washes the 
bodies of the participants after they have completed their 
penance. 

4. The Infermero (Nurse) visits brothers who are 
sick, sees that they secure proper attention and gener- 
ally attends to the work of mercy of the brotherhood. 

5. The Mandatario (Collector) acts as assistant secre- 
tary and aids the Maestro de Noznos. 

6. The Maestro de Novios (Teacher of Novices) is 
required to examine those who seek admission into the 
brotherhood, and conjointly with the Mandatario instructs 
them in regard to their obligations and duties. One of 
the chief obligations imposed is that of secrecy. No 
outsider is to know anything of what transpires in the 
morada, unless by authority of its officers. It is this 
feature, undoubtedly, equally with that of the public 
flagellation, that led the Catholic Church to place the 
brotherhood under its ban. There are many traditions in 
the Southwest of fearful punishments inflicted upon those 
brothers who have violated their vows. One is of burial 
alive, and there can be no question as to the faith many 
people have in the truth of these gruesome reports. 

7. The Secretario, as his name implies, keeps the rec- 



The American Passion Play 279 

ords, and officially confirms the decrees of the Hermano 
Mayor. 

8. The Sangrador (Pricker). This officer inflicts the 
seal of the penitentes upon the backs of the members. 
The full seal is three gashes the full length and three the 
width of the back at right angles to each other. These 
are cut with a sharp rough instrument, a piece of flint 
or glass, called the pedernal. The Sangrador also whips 
the members when he deems them lagging in earnestness 
and enthusiasm in their self-whipping. 

9. The Resador (One who prays). This official ac- 
companies the flagellants upon their marches and reads 
the prayers whilst they are whipping or otherwise pun- 
ishing themselves. 

10. The Pitero (Piper). This is the piper who plays 
the hymns sometimes with, and sometimes without, the 
singing accompaniment of the brotherhood. It is the 
wail of this pipe made from the cariso or reed — very 
much like a primitive oboe — of which Lummis thus 
writes : 

Every Friday night in Lent the belated wayfarer among the inte- 
rior ranges is liable to be startled by the hideous too-ootle-te-too 
of an unearthly whistle which wails over and over its refrain. 

As the midnight wind sweeps that weird strain down the lonely 
canyon, it seems the wail of a lost spirit. I have known men of tried 
bravery to flee from that sound when they heard it for the first 
time. A simple air on a fife made of cariso seems a mild matter 
to read of; but its wild shriek, which can be heard for miles, car- 
ries an indescribable terror with it. "The oldest timer" crosses 
himself and looks askance when that sound floats out to him from 
the mountain gorges. 

Another instrument used in the ceremonies is the 
matraca, the wooden rattle common in certain Catholic 
ceremonials, which makes a horrible noise and is used 
in England for frightening birds from growing corn. 



280 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

These ten officials are known as the Hermanos de Luz 
(Brothers of Light). When an outsider wishes to join 
the brotherhood he is carefully examined as to his motives 
and his sincerity. This latter is fully tested, for it is 
affirmed that he must whip himself in private and in 
the public procession for five years before he is admitted 
to full brotherhood. Nor can he hold office until his 
novitiate is ended. No full-fledged brother is required 
to whip himself, unless as a penance imposed for some 
flagrant wrong-'doing confessed, yet it is no uncommon 
thing for an earnest penitent to impose a special penance 
upon himself, and thus voluntarily join the whipping pro- 
cession at Easter time. 

It is affirmed by Lummis and others that the brother- 
hood's activities are confined to the Lenten season. This 
is incorrect. Naturally the imitative ceremonies of the 
Passion of Our Lord take place only at that time, but 
sessions are held in the morada at other times, especially 
on All Saints' Day (November i) and at funerals of 
members of the brotherhood or their families. Whip- 
pings are common at these times, though they are not as 
severe as during Holy Week. At San Rafael a friend 
of mine has witnessed several funerals of penitentes. 
On one of these occasions she wrote me : " The body 
was wound around with ropes. Thorns were placed 
upon the brow, under the arms, and in the hands, after 
which the clothing was put on and a black cloth put over 
the head and face. At the grave the body was wrapped 
in a sheet and so buried without a coffin. The grave 
was large and deep and at one end a hole was made, 
into which the head was thrust after the body was low- 
ered. During the whole ceremony the pitero played his 
melancholy melodies on his reed pipe. The night before 
the funeral several penitente friends of the deceased 



The American Passion Play 281 

formed a procession and whipped themselves, and his 
wife walked on a pathway formed by chollas, and then 
rolled herself upon it, wounding her back and breast with 
thorns." 

The fast of the Lenten Season is rigidly observed. 
But there are other penances besides whipping and fast- 
ing. The cliolla or buckhorn cactus (Opuntia spinosior 
sp.) is found all over New Mexico, It is covered with 
large and small cruel thorns, that, once in the flesh, con- 
tinue to work their way in until they fester. Imagine 
men and women walking bare-footed over a pathway 
made of these vicious plants, or rolling their naked bodies 
over and over on them, or taking a mass of them, tied 
together, and carrying them upon their backs. These 
" disciplines " are not uncommon both during the Lenten 
Season, on All Saints' Day, and also at funerals and 
special occasions of penance. 

But, naturally, it is in Lent that the penitentes' devo- 
tion is blown to a fierce blaze. For weeks before the 
brothers meet in the little morada, spending hours of 
the night in prayer, -and in listening to the instructions 
of the Hermano Mayor and the Maestro de Novios. 
Processions at night-time are formed. One shudders 
with horror as he recalls his first sight of this thrilling 
ceremony, and had it not been repeated he could well 
believe it to be the product of the delirium of disease or 
the fantastic figment of a dream. But it was too real 
to be imaginary. It was a cold night in late March and 
I had ridden out three miles with a friend. We had tied 
our horses to trees, and then taken places on the slope 
of the lonesome canyon in which the morada was built. 
Feeble lances of light shooting through the chinks of 
the building showed that it was occupied, and now and 
again voices could be heard. After a long wait, during 



282 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

which we sat shivering with cold, the door opened, and 
there stalked forth, in solemn silence, the pitcro. As the 
others followed he began that piteous wail upon his reed 
pipe that is penetrating in the extreme. The only light 
was that of the stars and the dim radiance shed by two 
or three lanterns carried by the assistants, one of whom 
immediately followed the pitero. Behind came five men, 
the faint light revealing bare feet, legs encased in the 
thinnest kind of white calico trousers, the body entirely 
naked and the head enswathed in a black cloth. All of 
them carried in their hands rude whips, made of the 
fibers of the prickly pear or Spanish bayonet. All of the 
five were bowed over, as if in timid shrinking, and their 
very movements showed a fear of the ordeal through 
which they were to pass. Tears came into my eyes — 
as they do now at the remembrance, — as I felt the deep 
pathos of the scene. 

Another brother, dressed in ordinary costume, guided 
the whipping brothers by a touch. In the rear followed 
the Chief Brother. Following the lead of the pipe, the 
brothers began to sing, and the procession moved. It 
was a doleful song, nasal and thin in quality, yet it made 
a profounder impression upon me than the scientific sing- 
ing of Caruso, Melba or Schumann-Heink. For it had 
a rarer accompaniment than song ever before heard. 
Moving forward a step, the five whippers paused, and 
then, a swish was heard, as one of them swung his heavy 
whip over his shoulders and it fell with a heavy thud 
upon his bare back. Another struck, then others in irreg- 
ular order. Two more steps forward were taken, another 
pause. Then, more swishes and dull thuds that seemed to 
the sensitive onlooker to reach even to his own marrow. 
Two more steps, followed by the slight pause to enable 
the swing of the whip. Now, even in the dim light, we 



The SeJf-JV hipping of the Neiv Mexico Penitentes. 

From a Paintiny made expressly for the author by 
William Lees Judson. 



The American Passion Play 283 

could see stains on the white fiber of the scourges, and 
on the tops of the trousers of the whippers. Fascinated 
by the tremendousness of the occurrence — for it seemed 
unbeHevable — I was drawn to the processionaires in 
spite of myself, or perhaps it were better to say, in utter 
unconsciousness of self. Regardless of the threats of 
men who carried guns in their hands and bade my friend 
and me retire, I approached near enough to receive a 
spatter of blood on my face at the next swinging of the 
whip. And later, when I went over the path of the 
whippers by daylight, I picked up a dozen or more large 
chips of newly cut wood on which are blots of blood 
clearly yet to be seen. Let it not be forgotten that all 
this while the singing continued, and over all the thin 
wail of the pipe ascended, suggesting the faint but pierc- 
ing cry of the soul's own agony. Here is a crude trans- 
lation of the hymn that was sung. Both Spanish and the 
translation are very lame : 

All upon our knees, 
Ought I to implore 
This blood of mine 
That I am going to shed. 

I am the sinner, 
Who has already sworn. 
To praise the blood 
Of this discipline. 

To praise You I come, 
Jesus and Mary, 
To implore the blood 
Of this discipline. 

On, on, the'gruesome procession moved, my fascinated 

eyes and fee't following, up to the slight mound or hill, 

/ upon which a cross was placed. Around this mound the 

procession moved three times, and then advancing to the 



284 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

foot of the Cross, the five flagellants prostrated them- 
selves, while the rest sang a hymn, of which the follow- 
ing are two verses : 

There is no one now 

Who is not worth something, 

Christ is already dead. 

Christ is already dead 
And life is now ended, 
Now give Him your soul 
For which He is calling. 

Now, the prostrate ones arose — and, did my ears play 
me false, or did I really hear groans ? — the procession 
re-formed and returned to the morada. But as it did so 
one of the flagellants began to cringe and sidestep his 
own blows. As he threw his whip, now heavy with 
blood, over his shoulder, he involuntarily dodged, so that 
the blow fell slightly on his side as the whip slipped over 
his arm. Seeing this, one of the companeros produced 
a heavy blacksnake whip with which he vigorously ap- 
plied two blows upon the body of the recalcitrant brother. 
A loud shriek, immediately stifled, followed this stern 
reminder. 

The hymn sung on the return to the morada seemed 
endless. Here are some of the verses : 

All together come 
In on your knees, 
To praise the blood 
Of this discipline. 

On their way they are, 
Jesus and Mary, 
To praise the blood 
Of this discipline. 

Oh ! my dear Jesus, 
Father of my soul. 
You Who deliver man 
From the cruel enemy. 



The American Passion Play 285 

All upon our knees 
We must implore 
This blood of mine 
That I am going to shed. 

I am a sinner, 
Who has already sworn 
To praise the blood 
Of this discipline. 

To praise thee I come, 
Jesus and Mary, 
To implore the blood 
Of this discipline. 

My tired Jesus 
Always saw Himself 
Greatly afflicted 
With this discipline. 

In my loneliness 

There would accompany me 

The whole universe 

In this discipline. 

With this destination 
My Jesus came, 
His body covered 
With this discipline. 

Again within the seclusion of the morada one might 
think the cruel rites over, and the poor wounded bodies 
being bathed and treated with healing oils. But, for a 
long time, at least, it is not so. Prostrate before the rude 
altar, moaning, groaning, praying, crying, the penitentes 
lie, while others pipe, sing and pray. Then, retiring to 
the inner room of the morada the coadjutor washes their 
wounds. 

On another occasion I witnessed, prior to the open 
procession, a reception of novices. This was on Holy 
Tuesday. There must have been fully twenty-five of 



286 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

them. Secure, by the invitation of the Hermano Mayor, 
and standing near him, within the niorada, soon after 
night-fall, I was a fascinated spectator and listener. A 
knock was heard and the voice of a novice chanted (in 
Spanish) : 

God's child knocks at this Mission's door for His grace. 

Hermano Mayor (from within) : Penance, penance is required by 
those who seek salvation. 

The Novice: St. Peter will open the gate, bathing me with the 
light in the name of Mary, with the seal of Jesus. I ask this broth- 
erhood : Who gives this house light? 

Hermano Mayor: Jesus. 

The Novice: Who fills it with joy? 

Hermano Mayor: Mary. 

The Novice: Who preserves it with faith? 

Hermano Mayor: Joseph. 

The warden now opened the door and the novice en- 
tered. He was received by the Maestro de Novios and 
the sangrador, who took him into the inner room. 

In the meantime another candidate had begun the same 
chanting catechism, and in due time was allowed to enter. 
This time one of the coadjutors received him, and when 
several were thus admitted, I asked the Hermano Mayor 
to take me into the inner room. Calling another to his 
place, and bidding me keep well in the background, he 
took me into the " Holy of Holies " of the morada. 
There I heard the Master of Novices instruct the novice 
in his duties : obedience, loyalty to the brotherhood and its 
officers, faithfulness in attendance upon its rites, the ab- 
solute need of whipping-discipline for salvation, and 
above all secrecy. Nothing that transpired within the 
walls of the morada must be revealed under any circum- 
stances. Then, turning this novice over to the sangrador , 



The American Passion Play 287 

another novice received his instruction, and yet another. 

I now sidled over to the sangrador and watched him. 
It was well I was prepared beforehand or I should have 
fainted. Stripped to the waist, the novice bent over, 
resting his hands on a rude bench. An assistant held a 
lighted candle over his back, on one side. Standing at 
his buttocks, the sangrador, with a jagged piece of broken 
bottle, made a deep incision clear down the back of the 
novice on the left side, then another in the middle and 
still another on the right side. Wiping of¥ the blood, he 
stepped to the side of the novice and made three parallel 
slashes across the back. This is the official seal of the 
brotherhood. 

Some sangradors do their work with a savage efficiency 
that leaves deep scars for life ; while others are more piti- 
ful. It is a gruesome sight to witness these men, one 
after another, submit to this painful ordeal, and one mar- 
vels at their self-control when he sees the sangrador take 
a handful of salt and carelessly rub it over and into the 
wounds. The victim may, generally does, weep heavy 
tears, but save now and then utters no groan or note of 
protest. Only once have I seen the salt used. On two 
other occasions the coadjutor bathed the lacerated backs 
with tea made of a plant known as the " Romero weed." 
The proceedings are conducted with a solemnity that is 
profound. No one can fail to be impressed with the 
deadly earnestness of these men. 

But. I have overlooked a further important part of the 
initiation. Before the wounds are bathed, the novice 
asks: 

For the love of God bestow upon me a reminder of the three 
meditations of the passion of Our Lord. 

In response the sangrador gives him three sharp lashes 



288 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

with a rawhide whip on one side the length of the spine, 
and three on the other. The novice now cries : 

For the love of God bestow on me the reminder of the five wounds 
of Christ. 

Five lashes are given, and then in turn, " For the love 
of God " prefacing each request, the sangrador is asked 
to bestow the " seven last words," and the " forty days 
in the wilderness," all of which are given. With a final 
warning to secrecy the novice is now allowed to go home. 
Generally there ils a procession of whippers to the Calvario 
following the reception of new brothers. 

Ash Wednesday is spent in confessing their sins, whip- 
ping themselves in the seclusion of the morada, whipping 
and praying, or visits to other moradas, the penitentes 
fasting the whole day. A procession is generally formed 
during the day, in which the one chosen to be Christ is 
made known. He is named by the Hermano Mayor as 
the result of a choice by lot — the drawing of straws — 
or he is named by a vision. For be it known, some of the 
Hermanos May ores openly claim to be the vessels of 
heavenly communication by means of visions. The 
" Christ " on this occasion drags a rude, heavy cross to 
the Calvario, accompanied by several others, either bear- 
ing crosses, or with cactus bound upon their naked bodies. 
The crosses are heavy, rudely constructed affairs, being 
nothing but heavy poles of unbarked pine, or similar 
wood, for the standard, with slightly smaller pieces for 
the cross-bars. Several times have I tried to carry one 
of these crosses, but failed. It is as much as I can do to 
merely stand and hold it on my shoulder, but these men 
drag them up the hill to the Calvario, and back again. 
True it is they often faint on the way, stagger and fall, 
and were it not for the activity of the coadjutors and 




Photograph by Bert Phillips. 

THE AUTHOR ATTEMPTING TO CARRY A TYPICAL 
PENITENTE CROSS. 



The American Passion Play 289 

other helpers, they might sometimes be severely injured 
with the weight of the crosses falling upon them. 

In the meantime there are women devotees, who are 
just as earnest in their self-inflicted punishments as are 
the men. I have not yet learned whether there is any 
definite relationship to the fraternity allowed to women, 
or whether their activities are purely voluntary. But I 
have seen women with bare feet and legs standing in 
beds of cactus, and on one occasion I was asked to go 
and see a sick woman who had been found, the day be- 
fore, insensible. On taking off her clothes it was dis- 
covered that she had wrapped a rawhide riata around 
her arms and legs so tight that blood circulation had been 
seriously impeded and infection had set in. When her 
friend began to remove the ropes the sufferer begged her 
to allow them to remain. It is stated that one woman 
so persisted that the wounds in one of her legs became so 
serious that the limb was amputated to save her life. 
Women sometimes accompany the processions, and it is 
said they used to whip themselves in public. 

As Friday, the day of the Crucifixion of Christ, draws 
near, the frenzy or zeal — whichever one prefers to call 
it — approaches its zenith. One writer well versed in 
penitente practice, having witnessed the ceremonies again 
and again through his boyhood, thus describes them on 
Thursday night : 

" About midnight of Holy Thursday the quiet of the 
sleeping mountain village is oppressive, broken only by 
the quiet sigh of the cold wind through the cedars, or the 
occasional ' ki-yi ' of a coyote. Suddenly the silence is 
torn by a shrill, unearthly wail, coming apparently from 
the air itself. It is the pito heralding the Day of the 
Cross. Mingled with it comes the sound of voices; al- 
most inhuman are they, keyed at the same high pitch and 



290 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

with the same tortured wail as the flute. The crack of 
the lashes can be heard. On they come through the dark- 
ness. A lantern flickers between the pinions and the 
weary procession is silhouetted against the sky line. 
Some stagger under the weight of the tremendous crosses, 
the heavy logs dragging and crunching over the stones 
behind ; the wet slap and swish of the disciplinas keeps 
time with the never ceasing pito. 

" Staggering and reeling they pass, bleeding and quiver- 
ing under the torture that seems beyond human endur- 
ance, going to few know where. Never have I met a 
person who has followed them to their destination on 
Thursday night. We surmise, however, that it is to a 
cross, somewhere on a lonely mountain. 

" At last they return, their steps more unsteady. Some 
reel and fall, only to be scourged the harder, some scream 
in an ecstasy of fanatic feeling, but never does one waver 
under the punishment. It may be that they are all able 
to return unassisted, but usually, more than once, the poor 
Crista' s load weighs him down; more than once, the 
companeros must hold the cross or catch it to keep him 
from falling under it and having his brains crushed out." 

Good Friday, however, is the great day. To the peni- 
tente this is the one day of the year, and to the Crista 
it may be the one day of his life, for many a man nailed 
or tied to the cross on this day has never again been seen 
on earth by relatives or friends. When such disappear- 
ances occur, the victim's boots are returned to his quietly 
disconsolate family and they are informed that he has 
" gone on a journey." 

As the first signs of morning begin to appear over the 
mountains the investigating visitor finds others — friends, 
sympathizers or the merely curio.us — wending their way 
to the morada. It is generally shiveringly cold. All my 



The American Passion Play 291 

memories of the Lenten doings of the penitentes seem 
wrapped in shivers, whether of cold or nervous sympa- 
thy, or both, I can scarcely tell. Since the hostility and 
interference of officious protestants one now finds, on ap- 
proaching the morada, a number of men armed with 
loaded rifles and shotguns, acting as sentinels who guard 
against any interference, and also scare the wits out of 
any simple-minded camera fiend, who fondly imagined 
he might be allowed to make photographs. 

Suddenly the thin wails of the pipe, accompanied with 
the rousing din of the matraca, burst upon the ear. This 
was the signal to the brothers, sleeping the sleep of ex- 
haustion after pain, to awaken and engage in the solemn 
rites of the day. Soon thereafter the door opened and 
the procession formed as before related. But this time 
the backs of the penitentes were fearfully lacerated and 
it seemed impossible that they could inflict further pun- 
ishment upon themselves. The sangrador, however, a 
stern faced Mexican — who would have made an admir- 
able and officious assistant of the Holy Inquisition of 
torture days — evidently did not think so, for he dipped 
the disciplinas — the scourges — in water that they might 
cut the more severely. The ground was frozen; here 
and there ice glistened, and the wind blew with chilly 
blasts down the narrow canyon. We were shivering; 
how must it have been with the naked backs of those poor 
sufferers! Yet stolidly they marched, and we heard the 
swish of the whip, its " thwack " as it struck the quiver- 
ing flesh, and we could clearly see the blood spattering 
as each blow fell. This procession was to the Campo del 
Santo, — the graveyard, — as the morada is in the village, 
but in some cases it goes to the appointed Calvario. In 
either instance the procession halts as usual before the 
cross which is found in place there. 



292 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

After their return, the lacerated backs are bathed in 
Romero weed infusion; the penitentes all partake of a 
rude breakfast, brought to them by relatives or friends, 
and then, with the visitors, all become reverent attendants 
at an altar service, conducted by the Hermano Mayor. 
After singing, in which all present join, prayers are of- 
fered, and all devotees advance and kiss a crucifix held 
in the leader's hand, at the same time making a small 
monetary donation. Then, in a silence that is painful, 
one sits wondering what comes next. Later, on my 
questioning him, the Hermano Mayor explained this si- 
lence as being necessary in order that he might receive 
the instructions of the Holy Spirit as to the future con- 
duct of the brotherhood. One private member, however, 
rather cynically informed me that it was to give the devil 
a chance to suggest how he might more cruelly torture 
the brothers at the next period of discipline. 

Before noon another short march, with lighter whip- 
pings, takes place, and then there is a period of rest and 
meditation prior to the final and important procession of 
the afternoon. At this all the penitentes appear. There 
are sometimes as many as six or eight bearing crosses, 
the Crista, of course, having by far the heaviest one, and 
occasionally wearing a crown of thorns. All the whip- 
pers are in line, and it is not uncommon to see the women 
devotees or sympathizers straggling along, near by, as 
near to the procession as they are allowed to come. On 
this occasion, also, where the brotherhood is numerous, 
the Carreta del Muerto — the cart of death — is used. 
This is a home-made cart, with solid wooden wheels, 
shaped out of the trunk of a tree, and with heavy wooden 
axles. Laden down with stones, upon which is placed a 
bed of cactus, it makes a fitting seat for a skeleton, rep- 
resenting Death, which holds in its bony fingers a bow, 



The American Passion Play 293 

with the arrow set in the string as if ready to shoot. 
This is in accord with penitente theology, which is of a 
sterner type than that of the old Greeks, who placed a 
skeleton at their feasts to remind them that death was 
near, and that, therefore, they must feast with the more 
complete abandon. This carreta is drawn by six or eight 
men, each with heavy chains fastened around his ankles. 
Ropes for traction go from the cart and are fastened 
around their necks, to suggest the strangle-hold Death 
has upon all men. This carreta del muerto is seldom seen 
now-a-days except by members themselves. It is gen- 
erally kept in seclusion in the inner sanctum of the 
morada. On one occasion it is said the arrow was acci- 
dentally loosened from the taut bow and killed a by- 
stander. 

The pitero heads the procession, followed by the Crista, 
carrying the heaviest cross, and other cross-bearers. 
Then come the whipping brothers. The men's singing is 
reinforced by the higher notes of the women, as the grue- 
some party moves forward. Every few steps one of the 
cross-bearers staggers and would fall were he not aided. 

Of late years there has been no open daylight cruci- 
fixion, except in a few cases where it is known that 
wooden images were used. This has led to the assertion, 
now often made, that crucifixions have ceased. This is 
not true. They still take place, but with the utmost 
secrecy and in the night-time in some far-away spot on 
the mountain side where curious and prying eyes are not 
apt to be. 

Owing to there now being no public crucifixion — un- 
less the wooden representation of Christ be used in one — 
a change has taken place in the ceremonies. A circle is 
composed of fourteen crosses, and the penitentes go 
around this circle, stopping at each cross while certain 



294 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

prayers are recited. Each cross represents one of the 
fourteen stations. 

As they return to the morada the frenzy of the zealots 
seems to increase. The singing of men and women de- 
notes greater ardour ; the prayers become more fervent ; 
the blows fall faster and heavier upon the lacerated backs 
of the self-whippers ; and the blood flows more freely. 
The cross-bearers are generally wholly exhausted and 
have to be aided on each side, and it is no uncommon 
thing for one or more of the whipping brothers to reel 
and fall fainting to the ground, owing to the agony they 
endure. 

It is with a keen sense of relief that the compassionate 
onlooker sees the door of the morada open and the piteous 
ceremonies brought to a close. 

The well-informed authority before quoted says of the 
crucifixions that he knows still take place: 

" The time of the crucifixion is an uncertain thing 
these years, but the method is still the same. The cross 
that has been dragged many miles by the doomed man is 
laid with its foot near a small hole. The Christ stands 
fearless and resolute near it. The men and sometimes the 
mother of the victim gather near. The Hermano to be 
crucified is laid on the cross, his arms are bound to the 
shoulders, his legs to the thighs with ropes ; the compana- 
dorcs, bracing themselves, pull the ropes so tight that the 
circulation is stopped. The cross is quickly raised, bear- 
ing its human load. The sermon of the seven last words 
is read. Then all is silent, except for the sobs of the 
mother, perhaps of another Mary, and some sympathizer. 
Slowly and surely the limbs darken, slowly discoloration 
passes up the trunk. Just before it reaches the heart, 
the Hermano Mayor signals and the Christ — uncon- 
scious, perhaps frozen so stiff that when taken into the 



The American Passion Play 295 

morada he must be turned sideways so his arms may not 
block the passage — is taken down. It may be that he 
regains consciousness, it may be that he does not. In the 
event of the unfortunate Crista dying he is buried se- 
cretly before morning in some lonely place. 

" A year later a small cross is placed over his grave. 
The reward that comes to him and his family is heaven. 
Of this they are all fully assured. 

" The culminating tragedy over, quiet reigns supreme. 
Except for the usual noises of birds and beasts, the occa- 
sional tinkle of a goat- or cow-bell, all is still. Just after 
dark, however, the quietude is pierced by the startling 
notes of the pito and matraca. All are summoned by 
these imperative and insistent noises. The Mexican pop- 
ulace, — men, women and children, — all come in a body, 
all the Brothers of Light are there, and even those who 
carried the crosses, and the poor victims of their own 
whippings arrive. Again the solemn procession marches, 
but this time it is to the church. The service to be held 
is known as tinieblas. This is the name originally given 
to the matins or morning service of the Catholic Church 
held on the three last days of Holy Week. But among 
the Mexicans it seems to have changed its significance. 
It is applied to the evening service on Good Friday, which 
is conducted in entire darkness. This is in accord with 
the scriptural account of the occurrences after the cruci- 
fixion of Our Lord. St. Luke tells that ' there was dark- 
ness over all the earth ' from the sixth to the ninth hour, 
' and the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple 
was rent in the midst.' St. Mjatthew adds that ' the 
earth did quake, and the rocks rent, and the graves were 
opened : and many bodies of the saints arose.' " 

In one service which I witnessed, just prior to the 
Tinieblas the church was lit with twenty-four candles, 



296 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

twelve on each side, placed in a triangular box. The 
hymn " La Passion " was sung, followed by the recital 
by the priest of twelve psalms, each psalm said to repre- 
sent one of the twelve apostles. At the close of each 
psalm an acolyte extinguished a candle in each box, thus 
symbolizing the desertion of the apostle from Our Lord. 

By this time the little church was filled, the general 
audience occupying the main floor, while the penitentes 
had taken possession of the choir gallery. Now began 
the tinieblas. To the scariness of perfect darkness was 
added a perfect clamour of horrible sounds — the rattling 
and clanking of chains, beating of a drum, shaking of 
sheets of tin or zinc, beating together of coal-oil cans, etc., 
while men and women shrieked and groaned, shouted and 
yelled with a wailing, suffering quality that made one feel 
he was indeed in hell. Lummis says this part of the 
ceremony is intended to represent the arrival of the soul 
in purgatory, but every one of the brothers and Hermano 
Mayors with whom I have spoken, and all the Mexican 
attendants on the services have translated the word 
tinieblas for me as " earthquake," clearly indicating that 
they regard this as the culmination of the actual occur- 
rences on Calvary. For fully five minutes this unearthly 
noise continued. Then there was a sudden hush. Out 
of it a voice was heard calling for a sudario. This is a 
handkerchief or cloth put over the face of the dead. Im- 
mediately some one began a prayer. At its conclusion the 
racket was resumed in all its ear-splitting hideousness, 
continued for about five minutes, and was again hushed. 
Another sudario was called for. And thus, alternating 
noise, the silence, the sudario, lasted for an hour or 
more. 

As near as I can gather the call for the sudario for a 
certain person supposed to be in purgatory materially 



The American Passion Play 297 

aids, if not altogether succeeds, in advancing it on its 
journey to heaven. For the whole philosophy of the 
penitential faith is that the sufferings willingly endured 
here produce a corresponding joy and freedom from pain 
and distress in the after life. The symbolism, thus, is 
apparent. As Christ rose from the dead and ascended 
into heaven, the penitentes believe that they can vicari- 
ously assist their deceased friends to ascend into heaven 
from purgatory. 

The final sudario responded to, the noise hushed, the 
audience disperses, the mass of the people go to their 
homes, the penitentes to the morada, where they transact 
the business of the year, electing officers, etc. This often 
keeps them all night — as in more supposedly refined 
communities — and when all is done to their satisfaction 
they retire to their homes, each one assured that his soul 
is safe, until warned by the Hermano Mayor that his sins 
demand another penance, or until the arrival of the next 
yearly carnival of penitential agony. 

Silenced by their vows of secrecy and yet allowing so 
much of their ceremonial to be seen by the public, there 
is little wonder that a thousand and one wild stories are 
circulated in New Mexico about the penitent brothers. 
One might naturally expect that those who so strenuously 
professed a desire to partake of the sufferings of Christ 
would also show forth some of the Christlike life. Lum- 
mis, however, says, and many good people in the State 
confirm his assertion, that this is a " serious error : " 

There are among them good but deluded men; but many of them 
are of the lowest and most dangerous class — petty larcenists, horse- 
thieves, and assassins, who by their devotions during Lent think to 
expiate the sins of the whole year. The brotherhood, though broken, 
still holds the balance of political power. No one likes — and few 
dare — to offend them; and there have been men of liberal education 
who have joined them to gain political influence. In fact it is un- 



298 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 



^ 

fi 
I 



questionable that the outlawed order is kept alive in its few remote 
strongholds by the connivance of wealthy men, who find it con- 
venient to maintain these secret bands for their own ends. 

It is well known that some of these men are criminals, 
for there are several now in the state penitentiary at 
Santa Fe. As soon as they undress for bathing the 
guards recognize the " seal " — the scars of the cuts upon 
the back — and know them as penitentes. 

At present, there is a serious split in the brotherhood. 
There are two factions, one having, I am told, over seven- 
teen hundred members, and the other over a thousand, in 
the counties closely adjoining Taos County — the head- 
quarters being in the city of Taos. The chief Hermano 
Mayor of the larger faction is a saloon-keeper. 

That the brotherhood is under the ban of the Church 
does not seem to affect them at all. Many times in talk- 
ing with members, I have said : " But you are not good 
Catholics. The Archbishop has said you cannot receive 
the sacraments of the Church if you remain penitentes," 
and the immediate response has been : " What matters 
it, Senor, I am a penitente! " That seems to settle the 
whole question with them. Yet, while under the official 
ban of the Church, the priests do not seem able clearly 
to separate the sheep from the goats. The penitentes 
often march from their moradas direct to the churches, 
and join the regular congregations in the services, as in 
the case of the Tiniehlas, and I have photographs of one 
penitente celebration in which the regular parish priest 
blessed certain of the participants, etc. 

And as for the law ! — the penitentes used to regard 
themselves as outside and beyond the law. If a penitente 
was known openly to have injured an outsider practically 
no attention was paid to the matter by the Hermano 
Mayor. He might run off with his neighbour's sheep, 



The American Passion Play 299 

cow, burro, or even his wife, with impunity. But let him 
injure a brother penitente in any way, the Hermano 
Mayor not only could sentence the culprit to most con- 
dign punishment but his commands were held in such 
reverence that he had power to enforce them. Many a 
recalcitrant brother has felt the lash of the wire disciplina; 
and I have talked with one man who had been buried up 
to the neck, in a large olla, and compelled to remain in it 
all night, by order of the Chief Brother. One man was 
compelled to give up half of his herd and sheep and whip 
himself to and from the Campo Santo, because of a 
wrong committed, and still another crawled from his 
home on his knees, carrying a bundle of chollas on his 
bare back, to the home of another whom he had injured. 
There are many rumours afloat of brothers who, having 
violated the secrets of the order, have been buried alive, 
but, of course, such rumours are almost impossible to 
verify. 

Such was the state of afifairs thirty, even twenty, years 
ago. But the march of civilization is rapidly changing 
affairs, and men in authority are beginning to care less 
for penitente opinion, influence, or threats. Quite re- 
cently in one penitente stronghold — a county seat — 
several men were arrested for violating federal statutes 
in regard to selling liquor to Indians. The first man tried 
was convicted. The second and third were penitentes. 
Strong influence was brought to bear against having these 
men even brought to trial and when they were finally 
arraigned before the U. S. Commissioner the courtroom 
was filled with armed and angry penitentes, and a large 
mob of them gathered outside, clearly for the purpose 
of intimidating the Commissioner. He, however, was a 
man of sturdier type who believed in observing the law, 
and in enforcing it upon wrongdoers, and he contrived in 



300 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

some way to let the Hermano Mayor know that if any 
riot occurred, or any other untoward thing happened, 
he would personally be held responsible. The trial pro- 
ceeded, the men were found guilty and sentenced, and the 
penitentes began to realize that they were living in a land 
where they, as well as all other citizens, were amenable 
to the law. 

Lummis quotes a song I have several times heard, and 
which shows how some outsiders regard the morals and 
flagellations of the penitentes. It runs : 

" Penitente pecador, 

Porque te andas azotando?" 
" Por una vaca que robe 

Y aqui la ando disquitando." 

Which is, by interpretation, 

" Penitente sinner, 

Why do you go whipping yourself? " 
" For a cow that I stole, 

And here I go paying for her." 

Considering the facts I have related it can well be 
understood that for many years I regarded the penitentes 
as incomprehensible fanatics, hypnotized into such super- 
stitious and zealous frenzy that they were largely unaware 
of what they were doing to themselves, and that the whole 
organization and its life depended upon the fostering of 
these superstitious and fanatical ideas by wicked, crafty, 
cunning, and self-seeking leaders. 

But of late years I am free to confess, there has been 
growing within me a strong belief that these explanations 
of penitente phenomena are inadequate and insufficient. 
Something more is needed than blind, fanatical, super- 
stitious faith in the word of a leader, however crafty and 
cunning and specious he may be. 

Is there not in the human heart, at times, at certain 



The American Passion Play 301 

stages in our mental and moral development, a natural 
desire for self-abasement, self-punishment? Every peo- 
ple of every clime in some period of their existence has 
had its " penitentes." From the aboriginal peoples whose 
shamans often carry the sins of their fellows away into 
the desert, — as the scapegoat of the Jews of the Exodus 
carried theirs into the wilderness, — through the fakirs 
of India, the ascetics of medieval times to the monks and 
nuns of our own day, the controlling idea is the same. 
Therefore I no longer dismiss the penitente with the 
shouts, " Fanatic ! " " Ignorantly superstitious ! " I 
don't understand him, quite. Perhaps I never shall. 
"Quien sabe?" 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE MOUNTAINS OF NEW MEXICO 

Those who judge New Mexico solely by what they see 
traveling over main lines of railway to California know 
little or nothing of the wonderful charm and delight 
found in its mountains. Within its confines are to be 
found ranges that combine all the distinguishing charac- 
teristics of the Adirondacks, the Alleganies, the White 
Mountains of New England, and the Cumberland Moun- 
tains of Tennessee. Even rare and strange human ele- 
nents are not wanting, for there are miner and prospector- 
hermits, scholarly students bent on discovering facts and 
principles that they deem are hidden here, and Indians 
whose history was hoary long prior to Columbus or even 
the birth of Christ. 

While by far the greater part of the State is composed 
of grassy plains and arid valleys lying between the levels 
of 4,000 and 7,000 feet, it is also diversified by higher 
mountain ranges which stand out in bold relief, usually 
capped with dark forests. Here and there are to be seen 
half-barren, jagged little peaks and ridges, rich in desert 
colours, quaint vegetation, and interesting forms of ani- 
mal life, and often rich in minerals. The lowest part 
of the State is in the south, where the Pecos River 
crosses the line at about 2,800 feet elevation, and the Rio 
Grande at about 3,700 feet, while the highest is in the 
north, where Wheeler Peak towers above the northern- 
most of the Pueblo towns — that of Taos — at an alti- 
tude of 13,600 feet. 

302 



The Mountains of New Mexico 303 

While I have cHmbed practically all the high moun- 
tains of New Mexico the following descriptions are taken 
bodily from Vernon Bailey's Life Zones and Crop Zones 
of New Mexico, a monograph issued by the Biological 
Survey of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Profes- 
sor Bailey and his wife, Mrs. Florence Merriam Bailey, 
have spent many months, scattered over a large period 
of years, in studying the plant, bird and animal life con- 
ditions of New Mexico, and the State owes much to their 
devotion and their faithful and happy transcriptions of 
the results of their observations. 

New Mexico would be a sad and forsaken land, indeed, 
were it not for the mountains. They are just as essential 
to human and agricultural life as her valleys, for without 
them the latter would almost be waterless and hence un- 
livable. 

For half the year the higher mountains are practically 
uninhabitable on account of cold weather and deep snow, 
but for the other half, when they are pouring streams of 
clear water into the lowlands, they are serving also as 
the summer resort and pleasure ground for the valley 
dwellers, not only from New Mexico, but from other 
States. There is therefore an imperative need for the 
careful guarding of these valuable assets of a develop- 
ing State: Water, forests, grass, and a great outdoor 
playground for its people. An intimate knowledge of 
the more important ranges is the first step toward ade- 
quate protection of their natural resources. 

Two branches of the main Rocky Mountain mass of 
Colorado extend into northern New Mexico, the San Juan 
Range on the west and the Sangre de Cristo Range on 
the east of the Rio Grande Valley. The Sangre de 
Cristo is the highest and most extensive range in the 
State, with broad plateaus, high mountain valleys, and 



304 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

three groups of peaks (Culebra, Taos, and Truchas) ris- 
ing above 13,000 feet. From Colorado it extends south 
between and a little beyond Santa Fe and Las Vegas in a 
broad and well-defined range. The lowest saddle in this 
range is Taos Pass, 9,280 feet; the highest point is 
Wheeler Peak, 13,600 feet. There is usually a central 
crest of sharp peaks and ridges rising above the broad 
shoulders of the elevated plateau. In places the range 
is double, with high interior valleys, and throughout it has 
a complex series of long, steep, and often rocky exterior 
ridges reaching down to the outer plains. The upper 
slopes, lying mainly above 10,000 feet, are deeply cut or 
broadly rounded by comparatively recent glacial action. 
Numerous cirques or glacial amphitheaters cutting into 
the base of the higher ridges and peaks give ample evi- 
dence of the forces that chiseled the cliffs and gouged the 
hollows. Numerous and often extensive lateral or ter- 
minal moraines stretch across or along the edges of the 
valleys. An example of the usual type of stream source 
in these well-watered mountains is the head of Pecos 
River. A mile below the little lake, at 11,700 feet, from 
which the river rises, the stream rushes down a morainal 
dam, apparently 500 or 600 feet high, to flow for some 
distance through a round-bottomed valley, after which it 
cuts its way out of the mountains through a sharp-bot- 
tomed gulch. Numerous other lakes, some mere shal- 
low ponds of snow water, others deep green basins left 
behind the moraines or scooped out of the solid rock in 
glacial paths, form the headwaters of visible or hidden 
streams. These are mainly near or above 11,000 feet, 
but lower down the stream courses are almost devoid of 
natural reservoirs. Springs and creeks are numerous 
from near timber line down through the higher zones, 
but become scarcer toward the base of the mountains as 



The Mountains of New Mexico 305 

the streams gather into larger and more widely separated 
channels. 

Until the midsummer rains begin the mountain slopes 
are drenched with melting snow. As late as August 14, 
1903, a few large snow banks still occupied the cold slopes 
of the Truchas Peaks, while one small drift yet remained 
behind the crest of Pecos Baldy. On August 12, 1904, 
a little of the old snow still clung to the cold slopes of 
Taos and Wheeler Peaks, and on August 20, some large 
banks were found on Culebra Peak. It is doubtful if the 
■winter's snow ever entirely leaves these tall crests of the 
range, which during most of the short summer are heavily 
streaked with white. 

During July and August showers, often violent, are 
of frequent occurrence about the peaks. In consequence 
of this abundant moisture over the upper slopes, vegeta- 
tion has a vigorous growth, even where reduced to a car- 
pet of Alpine plants. The coniferous forests of the 
upper slopes, where undisturbed by fire, are dense and 
clean. Grass is abundant in the open, and the parks and 
timber-line meadows are brilliant flower gardens. Even 
the highest peaks, when not of bare rock, are carpeted 
with dwarf Arctic and Alpine plants of exquisite beauty 
and fragrance. 

The forests lie in well-marked belts, or zones, around 
these mountains, as is plainly seen where a broad view 
of the range can be had from an elevated point on some 
opposite range. The upper timber zone, or Hudsonian, 
is but a vanishing fringe of forest, where the foxtail pine 
and stunted spruce and fir struggle for bare existence 
among the rocks. 

Then come the spruce and fir in the Canadian zone, 
covering the slopes from 9,500 feet to 12,000 on the 
southwest and from 8,500 to 11,000 feet on the north- 



306 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

east. In a few places, narrow tongues of trees reach 
down into the canyons as low as 7,500 feet, or even clear 
through the Transition Zone. At one place at 7,500 feet 
where the Pecos flows through a deep narrow gulch, 
spruces and firs cover the cold slope, while just over the 
crest of the ridge on the warm slope ten rods distant 
there are nut pines, junipers, and live oaks. Such over- 
lapping or interlacing of zones merely shows the extreme 
effect of local configuration on temperature. 

The Transition Zone is that occupied by the yellow 
pine, covering the lower slopes from approximately 7,500 
to 9,700 feet on the southwest and 7,000 to 8,500 feet 
on the northeast. Usually the yellow pines stand in scat- 
tering growth or open forest, occasionally in dense groves 
of young trees. The Douglas spruce also is an important 
tree in the upper part of this zone, which it invades from 
the Canadian Zone above, while several of the deciduous 
oaks are irregularly distributed through it, and the nar- 
row-leaved cotton-wood borders most of the streams. 

The zone of juniper and nut pine, or Upper Sonoran 
Zone, covers the foothills and reaches out over the sur- 
rounding plains and valleys. Along the Pecos River 
Valley it ascends on southwest slopes to about 7,500 
feet and along the west base of the range to about the 
same altitude. On northeast slopes in the Pecos Valley 
and along the east base of the range it reaches to about 
7,000 feet. The upper edge of the zone is marked by the 
limit of nut pine, juniper, several species of cactuses and 
yuccas, and many shrubby plants, and the beginning of 
tall yellow pine timber. 

Animal life in these mountains is abundant and in 
many ways is of unusual interest. Such rare birds as 
rosy finches, pine and evening grosbeaks, pipits, solitaires, 
three-toed woodpeckers, and ptarmigan are found dur- 



The Mountains of New Mexico 307 

ing summer high up in the mountains, while Clark's nut- 
crackers, Rocky Mountain jays, and long-crested jays are 
regular camp visitors. Water ouzels bob in the streams, 
thrushes, kinglets, warblers, vireos, tanagers, juncos, and 
sparrows sing exuberantly during their breeding season, 
and brilliant hummingbirds flash among the flowers. 
There are also a few band-tailed pigeons and some dusky 
grouse and wild turkeys. 

White-tailed and mule deer are present, although be- 
coming scarce, coyotes and black bears are fairly common, 
and there are still a few grizzlies or silvertips, gray 
wolves, and red foxes. The beavers are increasing un- 
der recent protection. 

The big tuft-eared gray squirrels are an interesting 
feature of the yellow pine belt, while the little spruce 
squirrels and striped chipmunks give added life and in- 
terest to the forest. Big woodchucks whistle from the 
ledges and boulders and the odd little rock conies squeak 
and stack their hay under slide rock near timber-line. 
Pocket gophers, mice, and shrews burrow into the moun- 
tain slopes or make tiny roads under cover of protecting 
vegetation. 

Most of the streams are well stocked with trout, which 
often penetrate to the very sources of the little creeks 
above 10,000 feet. With proper restrictions good fishing 
and hunting can be permanently maintained and even 
greatly improved. 

The mountains form a natural park and ideal pleasure 
ground for summer camping and attract more campers 
each year. Some day they may be more highly valued 
for this purpose than for sheep ranges and lumber yield. 

From the majority of campers here, as elsewhere, much 
remains to be desired in camp ethics, especially in guard- 
ing the forests from fire and their inhabitants from wan- 



308 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

ton destruction, in beautifying rather than desecrating 
camp grounds, in guarding streams from pollution, and 
so sharing health and happiness with others and passing 
these advantages on to future generations. The useless 
destruction of song birds and harmless animals is due 
mainly to ignorance. To any but a human brute the 
beauty and songs and interesting ways of our wood neigh- 
bours in feather or fur appeal more strongly than do their 
dead and mangled bodies. From the boy or man who 
once begins to study them more closely than at rifle or 
shotgun range they are comparatively safe. 

West of the Rio Grande Valley the San Juan Moun- 
tains extend from Colorado south to the Chama River, 
which separates them from the Jemez Mountains and in- 
terrupts what would be otherwise a continuous range. 
The San Juans are a wide and not very high range, with a 
broad expanse of plateau top at about 10,000 feet and few 
points rising to 11,000 feet. Their broad middle slopes 
are largely covered with open yellow-pine forests and the 
upper slopes with dense growth of spruce and fir, alter- 
nating with great grassy parks and meadows. On the 
west slope deep canyons cut into the range, and along at 
least one of these, the Brazos Canyon, east of Tierra 
Amarillo, rise sheer granite cliffs, Yosemite-like in size 
and structure. ' The lack of timber-line peaks gives a 
lameness to these mountains that is increased by gentle 
slopes and good roads over the highest parts of the range, 
but among the advantages are ease of access to many 
beautiful camp grounds, good springs, abundant grass, 
cool forests, and many sunny slopes, while many rough 
canyons offer picturesque grounds for exploration. 

These mountains differ from the Sangre de Cristo 
range in animal and plant life, mainly in the absence of 
Hudsonian and Arctic forms of higher altitudes. Both 



The Mountains of New Mexico 309 

ranges are characterized by the Rocky Mountain species 
of southern Colorado, with comparatively few sub-specific 
variations. 

The Jemez Mountains are of about the same extent 
and general character as the San Juans, from which they 
are separated by the deep narrow canyon of the Chama 
River. They are largely volcanic, with the highest peaks 
standing as remnants of old crater rims 10,000 to 11,500 
feet high. Santa Clara is the highest peak, while several 
others are only a little lower. Pelade Peak is 1 1,266 feet 
high, Abiquiu 11,240, and Goat Peak, just south of the 
head of Santa Clara Creek, 10,400. 

None of these reaches true timber-line, although on 
northeast slopes near their summits the timber is dwarfed 
and a few Hudsonian Zone plants are found. 

On the middle slopes of the mountains, streams and 
springs are numerous, but the high peaks and ridges are 
generally without water. Some of the streams disappear 
or are used for irrigation before they extend far into 
the valleys, while others carry their surplus water to the 
Rio Grande. Numerous dry washes show evidence of 
fierce floods that tear down them during heavy rains. 
The mountains are generally covered with soil and vege- 
tation except where cliffs and canyon walls break through 
and long lines of broken lava extend down from the 
peaks. A number of large park-like valleys at 8,000 to 
9,000 feet afford valuable grazing land, but most of the 
mountain area is well forested. 

Southwest of the Jemez Mountains lies the Mount 
Taylor Range or group, in close connection with the Zuni 
Mountains. There has been much confusion in regard 
to the name of this group of mountains, parts of which 
have been called San Mateo, Sierra Chivato, and Cebol- 
leta Mountains. The name San Mateo is also applied 



310 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

to the range west of San Marcial; the other names apply 
to local ridges or mesas. As Mount Taylor is the highest 
point, its name has been used to designate the group. 

Following the Zuni Mountains come the Datil and 
Pinyon Mountains leading across the high plains to the 
Mogollons, the last great link in the broken chain between 
the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Madre of Mexico. 

The Mount Taylor group is a broad volcanic plateau 
with the great ruin of an old lava crater, Mount Taylor 
proper, at its southern end, standing 11,389 feet at the 
highest point of its wide semicircular rim and inclosing 
a steep secondary cone about 1,000 feet high. Part of 
the plateau is lava from the old crater, part from numer- 
ous smaller craters scattered over its surface. Series of 
great sandstone ridges stretch away to the west beyond 
Fort Wingate, including Hosta Butte, Navaho Church, 
Mesa Butte, and Sierra de los Lobos, which almost con- 
nect with the Zuni and Chusca Mountains. These ridges, 
7,000 and 8,000 feet high, are mainly flat-topped mesas 
like the Chusca and the western part of the Zuni Moun- 
tains. The mountains are not well watered. A beautiful 
permanent creek winds down inside the old crater of 
Mount Taylor and cuts its way out through the broken 
rim on the south. 

A few other little creeks and scattered springs break- 
ing out around the edges of the mountains are permanent, 
but the greater number of streams are merely spring tor- 
rents from melting snow. 

The Chusca Mountains ^ are a long low range, in reality 

1 The name Chusca, or Choiskai, is generally applied to the south- 
ern half, and Tunicha, or Tunitcha, to the northern half of this 
perfectly continuous and nearly uniform range. There is certainly 
not room for two names, and I have used the one that seems better 
known and in its shorter form, which is in common use among local 
residents. 



The Mountains of New Mexico 311 

a long mesa or plateau, extending from a little north of 
Gallup northward across the New Mexico and Arizona 
line and almost connecting with the Carrizo Mountains, a 
higher, rougher group lying mainly in Arizona. 

Most of this mesa is of sandstone, 8,000 to 9,000 feet 
high, with abrupt rimrock margins, but toward the north 
there are ridges of rough lava rock and basaltic cliffs. 
The top is an undulating forested country with great 
numbers of shallow lakes, usually without outlets. Be- 
low the rim are numerous springs and short creeks that 
rise in the canyons and flow for a short distance down 
the steep slopes or in a few cases out into the neighbour- 
ing valleys. There is abundance of water for stock, but 
very little for irrigation. 

The Navaho Indians live in large numbers in the open 
canyons or wide gulches around the base and lower slopes 
of these mountains. Here on moist, mellow flats their 
garden patches yield a good supply of corn and wheat, 
beans and squashes for winter provisions ; their herds of 
sheep, goats, cattle, and horses range out on the plains, 
or up the mountain sides; scattered nut pines, junipers, 
and live oaks furnish not only fuel and shelter but even 
food ; and the yellow pines come down low enough to be 
available for house logs and timbers. It is a region of 
primitive comforts but with no possibility of a great 
future in agriculture. 

In summer many of the Indians with their herds mi- 
grate to the cool broad top of the range, where there is 
good grazing and abundance of water. Numerous 
hogans, summer huts of rude pattern, are scattered over 
the top, but there are no evidences of attempted agricul- 
ture except the sheep corrals and occasional little horse 
pastures. During my trip over the Chusca in October, 
1908, the mountains were practically deserted except for 



312 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

stray bands of cattle and ponies, and wisely so on ac- 
count of cold nights, driving winds, and rain and snow. 

The Navaho Indians in their religious reverence for 
feathered spirits have made their great reservation to 
some extent a bird preserve. Ducks are unmolested in 
the lakes and doubtless breed there in considerable num- 
bers. Wild turkeys have held their own unusually well, 
but have suffered somewhat from hunting by outsiders 
and Christianized Indians. Some mammals, considered 
sacred, especially the black bear and coyote, have also 
thrived, while the mule deer and antelope have been ex- 
terminated over a wide area. Prairie dogs are now popu- 
lar game animals and the Indians, who shoot and dig them 
out for food, have almost depopulated some of the dog 
towns. 

Another range of mountains seen from the Santa Fe 
trains opposite the Mount Taylor range, is that known 
as the Zuni Mountains. 

At their highest eastern end, where Mount Sedgwick 
rises to an altitude of about 9,300 feet, the Zuni Moun- 
tains are rough and volcanic, but to the west they are 
great flat-topped ridges 8,000 to 9,000 feet high, largely 
of sandstone with abrupt rimrock edges. Extensive lava 
fields with numerous small craters stretch off to the south 
and east, while isolated buttes and ridges are scattered 
beyond. 

The mountains are well timbered but poorly watered. 
The few small streams that flow down the mountain val- 
leys reach the plains only during high water. The timber 
is mainly yellow pine in open forest, now largely cut over 
but originally of great extent and value. There are some 
Douglas spruces and Gambel oaks ; aspens and spruces 
cover the higher cold slopes and we found there in June 
a number of Canadian Zone birds, such as the western 



The Mountains of New Mexico 313 

goshawk, long-crested jay, Clark's nutcracker, junco, 
Williamson's and red-naped sapsuckers, broad-tailed hum- 
mingbird, western flycatcher, pine siskin, ruby-crowned 
kinglet, Audubon's warbler, brown creeper, and Audu- 
bon's hermit thrush. 

The necessity for a group of names for the mountains 
of western Socorro County, New Mexico, is apparent to 
all who know or speak of them. While the maps give 
names to the many local ranges comprising this group, 
people constantly speak of these ranges collectively by the 
name of the highest central peaks, the " Mogollons." In 
the broadest sense of this term is made to include the 
Mogollon, Burro, Black, Mimbres, Diablo, Little Elk, 
Tularosa, Tucson, Datil, Pinyon, Oak Spring, and San 
Francisco Ranges, which form one extensive and regular 
mountain mass, a continuation of the chain which in- 
cludes the White Mountains of Arizona. The name has 
now become restricted to that part of this chain lying 
in middle western New Mexico. To the northwestward 
they are loosely connected through the White and San 
Francisco Mountains of Arizona with the ranges extend- 
ing through central Utah, and still more loosely through 
the Zuni Mountains with the Rocky Mountains of north- 
ern New Mexico and Colorado. But in both these cases 
the connection is much closer than with the Sierra Madre 
of Mexico to the south, where a broad belt of low plains 
intervenes. 

The greater part of the Mogollon Mountain mass is 
rough plateau 7,000 to 8,000 feet high, deeply cut with 
many canyons and here and there ridged with 9,000- and 
10,000-foot ranges. At least three of the central peaks 
of the Mogollons reach an altitude of about 11,000 feet, 
but not high enough for any true timber-line or for many 
Hudsonian Zone species. Still they are high enough to 



314 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

be of great importance, for on the border of a region of 
low hot deserts they receive a heavy fall of rain and snow. 
They feed most of the sources of the Gila River, several 
forks of which rise close under the highest peaks, and they 
have been called the Gila Mountains. They are covered 
by the Datil National Forest on the north and the Gila 
National Forest on the south, formerly mainly included 
under the name Gila National Forest. 

The mountains are largely volcanic, and many of the 
high ridges and plateau tops are very old, deeply cut, and 
eroded lava rock. There are many other formations, 
however, including numerous ore-bearing strata. Many 
of the cliffs and canyon walls along the branches of the 
Gila and San Francisco Rivers are sandstone, much 
eroded and full of cracks and caves. 

The Canadian Zone of this group which ranges above 
8,500 feet on the cold slopes and 9,500 feet on the warm 
ones, is generally steep and difficult of access, of little 
value for timber, and of less use for stock or agriculture. 
Its worth as a source of water supply for rich valleys 
below can hardly be realized. As a permanent breeding 
ground for game birds and mammals, as a source of 
beautiful and teeming trout streams, and as an ideal 
camping resort to which people flock from the hot valleys 
below, its importance is steadily increasing. 

Below this comes the Transition Zone, which is char- 
acterized by beautiful open forests of yellow pines, with 
scattered Douglas spruce and a sprinkling of Mexican 
white pine. In places there are scrubby oaks of the gam- 
heli group, the white-leaved oak, and New Mexico locust, 
and along the streams are generally fringes of narrow- 
leaved Cottonwood, alders, willows, and cornel. 

This open clean-trunked forest is not only of great 
and permanent value as a source of lumber supply to a 



The Mountains of New Mexico 315 

vast treeless region, but it affords much of the jfinest 
grazing land in the State. There is far more humidity 
than in the valleys, and if the range is not overstocked 
the grazing need not interfere with forest growth and 
reproduction. 

Some agriculture on very restricted areas would be 
possible in this zone, but its value would be little in com- 
parison with that of the present forest, water, and graz- 
ing. Over a great part of the area the surface presents 
the formation commonly termed malpais, which consists 
of extensive lava beds partly covered with thin layers of 
soil and with angular fragments of lava strewing the 
ground so thickly as to make traveling difficult, and in 
most places to render cultivation impossible. 

The Magdalena and San Mateo Mountains are so 
closely connected with the Mogollon Mountains and re- 
semble them so much in general features and fauna and 
flora that they might well be included in the group if nar- 
row Upper Sonoran valleys did not intervene. The fol- 
lowing description is from reports by E. A. Goldman, 
who has worked in both ranges. 

They extend along the west side of the Rio Grande 
Valley in Socorro County as steep, rugged desert ranges, 
reaching approximately io,cxdo feet in altitude. They are 
very rocky, with numerous side canyons and sharp ridges 
and steep slide rock slopes. They retain but little of the 
water that falls on them, and while showing deep erosion 
they have few streams and only occasional springs. The 
little available water along their basal slopes is, however, 
of great value, as the surrounding country is devoted 
mainly to stock raising. 

They are scantily forested with the usual Rocky Moun- 
tain trees. 

Three life zones are represented : Canadian, Transition, 



316 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

and Upper Sonoran. The Canadian Zone covers a nar- 
row crest along each range and extends down to 9,500 
feet altitude on hot slopes and to 8,500 feet on cold 
slopes. It is characterized by such trees as the aspen, 
white fir, Douglas spruce, and Rocky Mountain maple; 
by the long-crested jays, Clark's nutcracker, junco, and 
Townsend's solitaire; and by the Rocky Mountain 
meadow mouse, a red-backed mouse, and a little shrew. 

Transition Zone covers the lower slopes of the moun- 
tains from about 7,000 to 8,500 feet on cold slopes and 
from 8,000 to 9,500 feet on hot slopes. It is character- 
ized by scattered yellow pines, narrow-leaved cotton- 
woods, oaks of the Quercus gamhcli group, Ceanothus 
fendleri, Sericotheca, Pruniis, gooseberries, and currants. 
Its birds and mammals are practically the same as those 
of the Transition Zone of the Mogollon Mountains. 

The Upper Sonoran foothills and basal slopes are char- 
acterized by the usual juniper, nut pine, live oak, bear 
grass, yucca, and cactus. There are numerous dry washes 
and a few springs and streams. Agriculture is limited 
mainly by lack of water to a few garden patches and a 
little fruit raised for home use in the canyons and gulches. 
There is usually good grazing over the foothills and basal 
plains, and stock raising is an important industry. 

The San Luis and Animas Mountains form in the 
southwestern corner of New Mexico the northern termi- 
nus of the Sierra Madre of Mexico. The higher part 
of the San Luis range lies south of the boundary line, 
but the Animas range, north of San Luis Pass, is practi- 
cally a continuation of it, and attains an altitude of 8,600 
feet near its northern end. The Big Hatchet Mountains 
(8,300 feet) and Peloncillo Mountains (about 6,500 feet) 
are outlying ranges less closely connected with the main 
Sierra Madre but largely occupied by the same set of 



The Mountains of New Mexico 317 

species. Hemmed in on the north, east, and west by hot 
Lower Sonoran valleys, these steep, rough, arid little 
ranges are widely separated from the Mogollons and 
Rocky Mountains on the north. As the Animas peaks 
are the highest and most northern part of this ragged 
terminus of a great range, their plant and animal life is of 
particular interest. 

While the San Luis and Animas Mountains are of rela- 
tively slight importance for lumber, grazing, or agricul- 
ture, they still catch moisture and render the surrounding 
valleys habitable and valuable. There are no rivers of 
any importance for irrigation, but the streams that sink 
at the base or half way up the sides of the mountains 
break out lower down in springs, or carry a supply of 
good water below the surface to the bottoms of broad 
valleys. Thus stock raising becomes the most important 
industry, and where open water cannot be found within 
reach of good grazing areas, wells or tanks are used. 
Eventually parts of these warm rich-soiled valleys will be 
reclaimed by pumping from wells or reservoirs supplied 
by water from the mountain slopes. 

Incidentally the mountains are of some value as nat- 
ural game preserves, but in such small areas the game 
will soon be exterminated unless protected. At present 
the country is so thinly settled that protection for game 
depends mainly on the interest of the ranch owners and 
the more intelligent settlers. In most cases, however, 
local interests are powerless against outside hunting par- 
ties and irresponsible campers, though the New Mexico 
Game Protective Association has done excellent work in 
warning and punishing violators of the law during the 
past few years. 

The Big Hatchet Mountains, according to Ranger E, A. 
Goldman, which are in the southeastern part of Grant 



318 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

County, form a steep, rugged, desert range with a trend 
from northwest to southeast. They are steep and rough 
on all sides, but are tilted upward very abruptly toward 
the west. The highest peak, near the northern end of 
the range, is over 8,000 feet high. Toward the southern 
end the range divides and nearly surrounds a small, open 
valley, while farther south rises another rugged but lower 
desert range or group called the Alamo Hueco or Dog 
Mountains. On the northeast of the Big Hatchet Moun- 
tains the low range called Doyle Hills crosses the inter- 
national boundary into Chihuahua, and farther to the 
eastward in Chihuahua is the Sierra Boca Grande, simi- 
lar in height, trend, and general character to the Big 
Hatchet Mountains. All the mountains of the general 
region are very arid, and no permanent water or even 
temporary " tanks " are found in the Big Hatchet Moun- 
tains. The broad, gently sloping Hachita Valley ex- 
tends along the eastern side of the mountains, at about 
4,200 feet altitude, with drainage toward Lake Guzman, 
Chihuahua, while the Great Playas Valley lies west of 
the mountains. 

The Manzano and Sandia Mountains form the eastern 
border of the Rio Grande Valley opposite Albuquerque 
and Belen. The northern part of the range is known as 
the Sandias and the southern part as the Manzanos, the 
two ranges being separated by a high pass or open saddle. 
The Manzanos are joined loosely toward the south to the 
lower San Andres Mountains by way of the Cerro Mon- 
toso, Chupadero Mesa, and Sierra Oscuro, but the main 
part of the range includes only the Manzano and Sandia 
Mountains, which reach altitudes of about 10,000 and 
11,000 feet, respectively, and carry narrow crests of the 
Canadian Zone and a wider and continuous area of the 
Transition Zone. On the west these ranges drop abruptly 



The Mountains of New Mexico 319 

to the low Rio Grande Valley, while eastward they slope 
off gradually to the high open plains. The upper zones 
are narrow on the steep, barren west slope and much 
wider on the gradual and better-forested eastern side. 
Though in the midst of an arid country, these mountains 
are high enough to induce considerable precipitation, 
which results in a good cover of vegetation and extensive 
forests. There are numerous springs and a good supply 
of underground water far down the slopes, but streams 
are few and mainly ephemeral. 

The Canadian Zone covers the tops of these mountains 
and the cold slopes down to about 8,000 feet. It is well 
marked by a rather meager forest of white fir, blue spruce, 
Douglas spruce, Pinus Hexilis, aspen, and Rocky Moun- 
tain maple, with mountain ash, alders, and willows in cold 
gulches and along streams. It has a few characteristic 
mammals, the spruce squirrel, pocket gopher, dusky 
shrew, and probably others not yet recorded. The breed- 
ing birds are little known, as most of the field work done 
in the range has been late in the season. On July 30 I 
found half-grown wild turkeys near the top of the Man- 
zano range, but they may have wandered up from below 
after the nesting season. I also found olive-sided fly- 
catchers, j uncos, and thrushes that were probably on their 
breeding grounds. 

The Upper Sonoran Zone of the foothills and sur- 
rounding valleys is the main zone of agriculture and stock 
raising. The foothill division of this zone is of particu- 
lar interest along the eastern slope of the mountain, where 
it carries picturesque little forests of nut pine, juniper, 
and scrub oaks, with tree cactus, prickly pear, yuccas, 
red barberry, skunk brush {Schmaltsia trilobata), and 
other shrubs scattered between. Many little farms and 
stock ranches are located along this slope in sheltered 



320 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

corners where some irrigation is obtained from flood 
water and where dry farming yields occasional crops. 
The old apple trees at Manzano, from which the moun- 
tains are named, are said to be over one hundred years 
old. They are very large but yield poor ungrafted fruit. 
Much if not most of this juniper belt would seem ad- 
mirably adapted to apples if sufficient moisture for the 
growth of trees and fruit could by proper cultivation be 
conserved in the soil. 

The natural growth of grama and other grasses is good 
and forms fine grazing, while the gulches and timber af- 
ford good shelter for stock. 

The name Sacramento Mountains is applied by the 
United States Geographic Board to the range lying west 
of Pecos Valley, and includes the groups locally known 
as the Jicarilla, Sierra Blanca, Sacramento, and Guada- 
lupe Mountains. These form a practically continuous 
chain of ranges about one hundred and forty miles in 
length and thirty miles in greatest width. They lie be- 
tween the Pecos and Alamogordo valleys and extend a 
little below the Texas line. On the west and north they 
are distantly linked by high mesas with the Manzano 
Range and these again by other high mesas with the 
Sangre de Cristo Mountains, which are part of the Rocky 
Mountains proper. 

Sierra Blanca, the highest peak in the range, rises 
1 1, 880 feet. The Captains are over 10,000 feet, the Sac- 
ramentos, near Cloudcroft, 9,500 feet, and the Guada- 
lupes, near the Texas line, 9,000 feet. The lowest pass 
is over the Guadalupe arm, which comes down to about 
7,000 feet. On the west and at the north and south ends 
the mountains are abrupt and rugged, while on the east 
in the broad central part they slope gradually down to the 
broad plains of the Pecos Valley. The various groups 



The Mountains of New Mexico 321 

form a well-timbered range in the midst of arid plains, 
carrying a few Mexican or peculiar species or subspecies 
of animals and plants, but dominated largely by Rocky 
Mountain species. 

The Canadian Zone of this group of mountains is one 
of cool coniferous forests throughout which are numer- 
ous parks and spruce-bordered grassy gulches where 
springs and little streams afford conditions for delightful 
summer camps. For the people of southeastern New 
Mexico and much of western Texas it is the most con- 
venient resort during the long hot summers. Railroads 
and wagon roads make the mountains easy of access at 
many points and the national forests should insure the 
protection of this natural park region. Only a few years 
ago it was famous for its variety and abundance of game, 
especially elk, mule deer, white-tailed deer, antelope, big- 
horn, black and silver-tip bears, and wild turkeys. The 
elk are now exterminated and other game birds and ani- 
mals are becoming scarce, but it is hoped that they can be 
protected so that present numbers at least shall be main- 
tained. 



CHAPTER XIX 

THE NATIONAL FORESTS OF NEW MEXICO 

Many people who have seen New Mexico only from 
the transcontinental trains have the impression that the 
State is largely desert. This is because the railways, in 
order to find the easiest grades, naturally avoid the moun- 
tain ranges and seek the more convenient elevations. 
Few people are aware that on the higher elevations of 
New Mexico are to be found millions of acres of great 
forests, green mountain pastures, clear cold trout streams, 
and a summer climate that combines all the sunshine of 
the desert with the cool mountain air bom only of pines 
and snow-capped peaks. This mountain country of New 
Mexico lies mostly within the National Forests. These 
forest areas contain not only a large proportion of the 
material wealth and resources of the State, but offer as 
well a unique variety of opportunities for sport, rest, and 
recreation to the city dweller and tourist. 

There are seven National Forests in New Mexico, 
comprising a gross area of approximately ten million 
acres and bearing a timber stand of fifteen billion board 
feet of timber. They are administered by the Govern- 
ment with the purpose of insuring a permanent timber 
supply and to prevent the destruction of the forest cover 
which regulates the flow of streams. They provide for 
a permanent lumbering industry; supply material needful 
for the development of ranches, farms, and cities ; pro- 
tect the watersheds essential to agricultural development ; 
add stability to the livestock industry ; promote the de- 

322 



The National Forests of New Mexico 323 

velopment of facilities for transportation and communi- 
cation on the forest areas, and contribute through the 
receipts derived from their administration to the road 
and school funds of the counties in which they are situ- 
ated. Mining, agriculture, and all other uses of the for- 
est areas not incompatible with their primary purpose, 
are encouraged by the Forest Service. 

The timber resources of the New Mexico National 
Forests, under forest management, are estimated to have 
a present annual productive capacity of about eighty mil- 
lion board feet of lumber, sufficient to build each year 
8,000 homes for the people of the State, without diminish- 
ing the stand or forest capital. This annual production 
may be expected largely to increase with the practice of 
better methods of management. The watersheds which 
the forests protect affect the flow of most of the important 
streams in the State, and all of the larger irrigated dis- 
tricts derive a large part of their water supply from the 
National Forests. 

The greatest enemy of the timber and water supply of 
New Mexico is fire. Before the creation of the National 
Forests, forest fires destroyed millions of feet of timber 
annually. But with the present system of lookout tow- 
ers, telephone lines, and trails, the Forest Rangers are 
enabled to detect and reach all fires with great prompt- 
ness, and over ninety per cent are extinguished before 
they have covered ten acres. 

The Forest ranges of New Mexico are a large factor 
in the livestock industry of the State. One hundred and 
eighty-three thousand head of cattle and horses and five 
hundred and fifteen thousand head of sheep and goats are 
grazed each year for a small fee per head. The grazing 
regulations of the Forest Service are aimed to protect the 
small stockmen and to produce an equitable distribution 



324 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

of grazing privileges and a permanent grazing industry. 
Under scientific management the productive capacity of 
the forest ranges is increasing each year through the de- 
velopment of watering places, the construction of range 
improvements, and the improvement of the forage crop. 

The Forest Service is rapidly improving transporta- 
tion and communication facilities on the New Mexico 
forests. It has built 1,200 miles of telephone lines, 83 
miles of new roads, and 1,200 miles of trails for the pur- 
pose of facilitating administration and protection of the 
forest areas. 

One-fourth of all Forest receipts are paid direct to the 
local counties for roads and schools, an additional five 
per cent goes to the State on account of school lands ad- 
ministered by the Forest Service, and ten per cent is ex- 
pended by the Forest Service for roads. The total sum 
accruing to the roads and schools of the State, exclusive 
of the Federal Aid Road Act, is about $100,000 per year. 

The National Forests of the Southwest are self-sup- 
porting, and in fact turn in a handsome profit, which is 
steadily increasing with increased development. It costs 
$180,000 a year to protect and administer the New Mex- 
ico Forests and they turn back into the public treasuries 
the sum of $250,000 annually. 

The National Forests of New Mexico offer excellent 
business opportunities to stockmen and lumbermen who 
are seeking a location. With the general development of 
the State, new bodies of timber are becoming marketable, 
concerning which the Forest Service furnishes definite 
information to prospective purchasers. 

In addition to the purely economic resources of the 
New Mexico Forests, they have a large and increasing 
value in the attractions which they offer to travelers, 
sportsmen, and health-seekers, and in their increasing 



The National Forests of New Mexico 325 

popularity with the people of New Mexico and adjacent 
states as a location for summer homes. They are becom- 
ing more and more the vacation ground for the men of 
moderate means. On the headwaters of the Pecos, for 
instance, the Forest Service has laid out a large number 
of summer home sites, which can be leased for ten year 
periods at rentals varying from $io to $25 per year. 
With the building material already on the ground and 
obtainable from adjacent sawmills, $300 or $400 will 
build a very comfortable cottage. An automobile road 
brings the cottager to his front door. The Forest Service 
telephone line and near-by post office connects him with 
civilization, and almost at his doorstep he can enjoy ex- 
cellent trout fishing and the finest scenery in the South- 
west. These summer home sites are being rapidly taken 
up, mostly by the business men of the New Mexico cities. 
In the not far distant future, it would be safe to say that 
many of the Southwestern Forests will be dotted with 
summer homes and will supply health, rest and recreation 
to many thousands of visitors. 

The Datil National Forest 

A huge sweeping circle of mountain ranges over a hun- 
dred miles in diameter, embracing three million acres of 
grazing ranges and great bodies of virgin timber as yet 
unpenetrated by railways ; a region full of wealth and 
business but fuller still of untouched resources — this is 
the Datil National Forest. 

The timber stands of the Datil Forest are estimated 
to contain three and a half billion feet of lumber and five 
million cords of wood. The development of a great 
lumber industry in this region awaits only the extension 
of railroads. 

An extensive and thriving stock industry has already 



326 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

developed, practically all of the range being utilized. 
Permits are issued annually for the grazing of about 
52,000 cattle and horses and 129,000 sheep. A few 
of the mountain valleys support agricultural settle- 
ments. 

An interesting and potentially important resource of 
the Southwestern Forests is the heavy crop of nuts borne 
every few years by the pinion pines which grow in exten- 
sive stands along the lower edges of most of the mountain 
ranges. The pinion industry is rapidly developing on 
the Datil Forest. In 19 16 over a million pounds of nuts, 
worth about $96,000 wholesale, were shipped from Mag- 
dalena. These nuts were all gathered from the hoards of 
the native pack-rat. Without the services of this little 
animal in gathering the nuts, the pinion industry could 
not exist. With a growing shortage of food, the pinion 
industry will doubtless undergo a rapid expansion in the 
future. 

The Gila National Forest 

The Gila National Forest, administered from head- 
quarters at Silver City, New Mexico, comprises an area of 
1,600,000 acres in the region of the Mogollon, Black, and 
Big Burro Mountain ranges, and includes particularly 
valuable resources of timber, range, and minerals. The 
forest area includes the headwaters of the San Francisco, 
Gila, and Mimbres Rivers, on which large areas in both 
New Mexico and Arizona are dependent for their irri- 
gation water. 

The high mountain region known as " the Mogollons " 
is inaccessible except by saddle horse and pack train. It 
contains numerous trout streams which afford excellent 
fishing. Thanks to the efforts of the local Game Pro- 
tective Association in enforcing the game laws, the Mo- 



The National Forests of New Mexico 327 

gollons are also well stocked with deer and wild turkey. 
They offer a real hunting ground to the sportsman who 
is looking for a thorough outing. 

A large proportion of the Gila Forest is covered with 
valuable stands of timber estimated to contain over two 
billion board feet of lumber and nearly a million cords 
of wood, the sawtimber being west^ern yellow pine, Doug- 
las fir and Engleman spruce, while the cordwood is largely 
juniper and oak. Due to inadequate transportation fa- 
cilities a considerable proportion of the timbered area is 
at present inaccessible. The forest at present supplies 
the raw material for four active sawmills, but the increas- 
ing development of the region will make possible a large 
extension of these lumbering operations without exceed- 
ing the sustained producing capacity of the forest. Ex- 
cellent opportunities are offered by this timber, especially 
to large operators who are in a position to undertake con- 
struction of logging railroads. 

The principal present industries of the Gila Forest are 
mining and stock raising, the steady development of 
which has made the region well known as one of the 
most productive in the State. Grazing permits are issued 
for a total of 64,000 head of cattle and horses, and 13,000 
head of sheep and goats annually. There is every indi- 
cation that the forest area will indefinitely support at least 
these numbers of stock. 

The Lincoln National Forest 

In southern New Mexico, extending north and south 
for two hundred miles between the valleys of the Rio 
Grande and the Pecos, are a succession of high mountain 
ranges which comprise the Lincoln National Forest. Al- 
most surrounded by great expanses of treeless country, 
the wooded slopes of these mountains provide timber and 



328 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

give rise to living streams on which the development of 
many adjacent agricultural areas is dependent. 

A more obvious, but not less valuable resource of these 
mountains is the bracing summer climate they offer to the 
people of the hot valleys and plains of southeastern New 
Mexico and western Texas. No other section of New 
Mexico is attracting as many summer visitors. This 
summer population centers mainly in the resort at Cloud- 
croft, in the Sacramentos, to which a special chapter is 
devoted, and on the Ruidoso, in the White Mountains. 

The grazing ranges of the Lincoln Forest afford pas- 
turage for twenty-six thousand cattle and horses and 
twenty-three thousand sheep and goats. The productiv- 
ity of parts of the lower ranges has in years past suffered 
severely from an over-abundance of prairie dogs. In 
1915 the U. S. Biological Survey exterminated the dogs 
on one hundred thousand acres of range in the Guadalupe 
Division. As a result of this work, the Guadalupe range 
is supporting many hundreds of additional head of cattle. 

To the sportsman or naturalist, the most interesting 
feature of the Lincoln Forest is the small herd of moun- 
tain sheep that survive in some of the rugged escarpments 
of the Guadalupes. The Forest Rangers, the State au- 
thorities, and the New Mexico Game Protective Associa- 
tion are making a united effort to enforce the law protect- 
ing these sheep, in the hope that they will increase and 
eventually restock the other ranges of the State where 
they were formerly abundant. 

The Carson National Forest 

Situated in the extreme north central part of New Mex- 
ico, the Carson National Forest more closely resembles 
the mountainous regions of Colorado than those of New 
Mexico and Arizona. The Forest area lies in three di- 



T he National Forests of New Mexico 329 

visions and is administered from headquarters at the his- 
toric town of Taos, the home of the famous scout and 
pioneer, Kit Carson, after whom the forest is named. 

The Carson National Forest is an area of large eco- 
nomic importance, and of intense and varied interest. 
Its comparatively ample rainfall and heavy winter snows 
give rise to many streams which form a part of the head- 
waters of the Rio Grande and San Juan Rivers. Its tim- 
ber resources are of considerable magnitude, the total 
stand being estimated as a billion and a quarter board feet 
of lumber, and over seven hundred thousand cords of 
wood. These timber resources are in process of rapid 
development, and at present supply active sawmills with 
the material for their operation. Among these is one of 
the largest sawmills of the Southwest, which is operating 
in connection with fifty miles of especially constructed 
railway lines. The pinion nut industry is also important 
during nut years. 

The grazing resources of the Carson Forest are fully 
utilized by the numerous small Spanish-American towns 
included within and adjacent to the Forest boundary. 
About 9,000 cattle and horses and 149,000 sheep and 
goats, in addition to many thousands of milk and work 
animals which are carried free of charge, graze on the 
Forest ranges. 

The Carson Forest is one of the oldest settled regions 
in the United States. In the seventeenth century this 
was the frontier where the northward spreading Spanish 
settlements contended with the nomadic Indians of the 
Rockies for the possession of the land. In the days of 
the " Forty-Niners " one of the branches of the Santa Fe 
Trail passed through Taos. Quaint old churches, ancient 
orchards, and picturesque walled plazas remain to this 
day as monuments to the long history of this region. 



330 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

And in the more remote canyons are to be found dozens 
of cliff dwellings, some not yet explored by scientists. 

Except for the neighbourhood of Taos, famous for its 
Indian Pueblo, its picturesque Indian festivals, and its 
artist colony, the Carson Forest still remains largely un- 
explored by the general public. Dozens of fine trout 
streams; the wonderful Toltec Gorge; the lake region of 
Wheeler Peak, the highest point in New Mexico ; and even 
the new automobile road over Red River Pass are still 
comparatively unknown to the traveling public. With the 
gradual extension of good roads, this region will take its 
proper place as one of the most interesting in New 
Mexico. 

The Mansano National Forest 

This Forest comprises eight divisions, aggregating over 
a million acres, located on the various mountain ranges 
of central and western New Mexico, and is administered 
from headquarters at Albuquerque. The best estimates 
available place the total stand of timber at four hundred 
and twenty million board feet of lumber, mostly western 
yellow pine, Douglas fir, white fir, and Engleman spruce, 
and one and a half million cords of pinion, juniper and 
oak wood. 

The Manzano-Sandia Division, lying to the east of 
the city of Albuquerque, is topographically distinct from 
the remainder of the Forest by reason of an uplift of the 
geological formation which exposes the rock strata on its 
western slope in the form of a precipitous escarpment of 
about four thousand feet, a prominent feature of the 
view from the city of Albuquerque. The long eastern 
slope, on which most of the timber is located, follows the 
dip of these strata, thereby causing almost the entire pre- 
cipitation of the mountain range to drain eastward into 



The National Forests of New Mexico 331 

the Estancia Valley. This valley has been extensively 
settled by dry farmers. It has now been demonstrated 
that irrigation water may be obtained by pumping at 
levels varying from ten to one hundred feet below the 
surface. The future prosperity of the valley would there- 
fore appear to depend on a stable and adequate supply 
of underground water, and it is certain that most of this 
water is derived from the National Forest area immedi- 
ately to the westward, whose careful administration ac- 
cordingly assumes additional importance. 

The three remaining divisions of the Manzano Forest 
located on the San Pedro, Chupadera and Zuni Moun- 
tains, also bear valuable stands of timber, which furnish 
material for large sawmill operations. 

The Manzano National Forest is an important grazing 
region, affording range for nine thousand and five hun- 
dred head of cattle and horses, and 98,000 head of sheep 
and goats each year, as well as for a large additional 
number of cattle, horses and goats grazed free of charge 
by the settlers and by Zuni and Navaho Indians. The 
forest is comparatively densely populated, about three 
thousand people being directly dependent on its resources 
for their immediate livelihood, and a much greater num- 
ber for fuel and timber supply. 

The Manzano country is a region of great historical 
interest. Adjacent to the Sandia and Chupadera Divi- 
sions are found the Abo Ruins and the Gran Quivira Na- 
tional Monument, while between Mt. Sedgwick and Zuni 
Divisions is Inscription Rock, to which a special chapter 
is devoted. 

The Santa Fe National Forest 

In northern New Mexico, on either side of the valley 
of the Rio Grande, lies the Santa Fe National Forest, em- 



V't.' 



332 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

bracing a gross area of a million and a half acres. The 
forest headquarters are at the historic town of Santa Fe. 

The watersheds of this forest, supplying important 
feeders to the headwaters of the Rio Grande and embrac- 
ing the headwaters of the Pecos River, bear a most impor- 
tant relation to the irrigated agricultural regions tribu- 
tary to those two streams. 

The timber resources of the Santa Fe Forest are only 
beginning to be developed. The total stand is estimated 
to be over two and a half billion board feet of lumber and 
half a million cords of wood. The forest supplies mate- 
rial for eight active mills. Excellent opportunities are 
offered, especially by the timber on the Jemez Division, to 
lumbermen prepared to undertake big operations. 

The grazing resources of this Forest are also of very 
considerable importance. Permits are issued annually 
for about nine thousand head of cattle and horses and 
one hundred and two thousand head of sheep and goats. 
Most of these animals belong to the settlers of the adjoin- 
ing valleys. There is at present some excess range, espe- 
cially on the Jemez Division, which offers a good oppor- 
tunity for settlers desiring to enter the stock business 
to secure grazing privileges under the Forest Regula- 
tions. The forage on the excess range is largely bunch 
grass, which is best adapted for the summer grazing of 
cattle and horses. 

While important for its economic resources and water- 
shed value, the Santa Fe National Forest is most widely 
known by reason of its Cliff Dwellings, historic Fran- 
ciscan Missions and its popularity as a summer resort. 
The archaeological interest of the region centers largely 
in the cliff dwellings of the Jemez Division, while its best 
known historical monuments are found in the ancient 
city of Santa Fe, formerly the capital of the Spanish 




Photograph by U. S. National Forest Service. 

SANTA FE LAKE, SANTA FE NATIONAL FOREST. 



The National Forests of New Mexico 333 

province of New Mexico, and famous in American his- 
tory as the half way station of the Santa Fe Trail. The 
present development of the recreation resources has taken 
place largely on the headwaters of the Pecos River. 
Here are found a number of hotels for the accommoda- 
tion of tourists, while the excellent fishing and the delight- 
ful climate and scenery are attracting a growing colony 
of summer cottagers. A similar. area is being developed 
on Gallinas Canyon adjacent to Las Vegas. 

The Coronado National Forest 

The Chiricahua Division of the Coronado National 
Forest occupies the summits of several small mountain 
ranges in the extreme southwest corner of New Mexico, 
and the southeast corner of Arizona. The Forest area is 
exceptionally rough and mountainous, and in addition to 
the value of its timber to the large treeless areas surround- 
ing the forest, the protection of its watersheds is a vital 
factor in the maintenance of the underground water on 
which the valleys of Playas, Animas, San Simon, Sulphur 
Springs and San Pedro, mainly in Arizona, are becoming 
increasingly dependent. In fact it has been demonstrated 
that the depth of the water table of at least one of these 
valleys is largely in direct proportion to the distance from 
the forest watershed. 

The Chiricahua Forest is administered with headquar- 
ters at Tucson, Arizona. The principal industry at pres- 
ent is the grazing of cattle, which occupy the Forest range 
during most of the year. 

Chiricahua is the Indian word for turkey, which were 
formerly abundant in these mountains but are now lo- 
cally exterminated. Many of the interesting animals and 
birds of Mexico are found on the Chiricahua, including 
the Paroc[uet, Javelina, and Jaguar. 



CHAPTER XX 

THE BIRD LIFE OF NEW MEXICO ^ 

New Mexico is not only a State full of bird life — it 
is a veritable aviary. It is a bird-garden, in which are 
gathered, under one roof, as it were, representatives of 
bird life from the four corners of the earth. The reason 
for this extraordinary variety is not hard to find. It 
arises from the fact that New Mexico embraces so many 
different kinds of country. Birds of the arctic tundra — 
birds of the Mexican jungle ; birds of the treeless plains — 
birds of the farm and orchard ; birds of the piney woods 
— birds of the sage-brush ; birds of the lakes and rivers — 
birds of the barren hills; birds of the ocean and air — 
birds that burrow underground, — all these, and more, 
find a congenial home somewhere in New Mexico. Scien- 
tists tell us there are over three hundred and twenty bird 
species native to the State. If New Mexicans are wise, 
they will not suffer the destruction of a single species of 
this rich heritage.x 

Is New Mexico a waterless desert ? Looking down on 
the State, as it were, from above, it is a little white bird 
which conclusively gives the lie to this very common as- 
sumption. This little white bird is the arctic ptarmigan. 
Even the seasoned traveler naturally associates the ptar- 
migan with dim wastes of Alaskan tundra, — with mid- 
night suns and caribou ; with the great white reaches of 
the " land of little sticks." But New Mexico also has 

^ For this chapter I am indebted to Aldo Leopold, Assistant Dis- 
trict Forester, U. S. Forest Service. 

334 



The Bird Life of New Mexico 335 

her land of little sticks. Ask the mountaineer of Sangre 
de Cristo Range, and he will take you there. High up 
on the naked timberline peaks beside little snow- fed lakes 
fringed with arctic wild flowers, you will find the ptarmi- 
gan. Only a few to be sure, and those rigidly protected 
by game laws, and by rewards offered by the New Mexico 
Game Protective Association for the apprehension of 
vandals who molest them. But still they are ptarmigan, — 
snow-white in winter as they cruise about on feathery 
snowshoes; brown-white in summer as they make their 
nests among the lichen-covered granite crags. And with 
them you will find the little rabbit-eared cony, the 
whistling marmot, the little dwarfish conifers, the scant 
grasses and willow bushes, and all the proper settings for 
a little arctic island in the sky. 

In flat countries a thousand miles of transitional terri- 
tory separates the home of the ptarmigan from the pine 
woods. In New Mexico the two are hardly more than 
a stone's throw apart. Flanking every mountain range 
of the State is a broad belt of coniferous timber, which 
lies mostly within the National Forests, and is endowed 
with its own collection of native birds, including dozens 
of especially interesting species. 

The characteristic bird of the New Mexico pineries is 
the wild turkey. These Southwestern pineries are, in 
fact, the only place where this typically American bird, 
so permanently interwoven with our national history and 
traditions, is still to be found in sufficient numbers to 
afford the ordinary traveler or vacationist even a slender 
chance of seeing one. " Turkies," as Lewis and Clarke 
called them, are scarce enough, even in New Mexico, but 
if the efforts of the State's bird-conservationists are suc- 
cessful they will remain for all time an interesting feature 
of the Southwestern National Forests. A flock of wild 



336 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

gobblers is a splendid sight, and well worth many days' 
travel to see. 

To the eastern bird-lover, the most amazing performer 
among the pinery birds is the little gray water ousel. 
The ousel frequents the cold gushing trout-streams of 
the mountain slopes. He frequents them literally. He 
lives not by, but in the ice-cold snow water of the Alpine 
torrents. He does not even swim — but walks among 
the dripping boulders, quite indifferent as to whether his 
circumambient medium is the water or the air. But the 
final touch to the astonishment of his beholder comes when 
he flies "spat!" into the very face of a roaring water- 
fall and disappears therein. Only the initiated knows 
that he has gone to his nest, which is often built on the 
cold wet rocks behind the wall of water — safe from 
every preying thing that creeps or swims or flies. 

Hundreds of other birds likewise frequent the pineries. 
Faintly cheeping flocks of pygmy nuthatches animate the 
pine boughs; gaily painted hummingbirds dart like little 
meteors above the flowered carpet of the woods ; band- 
tailed pigeons boom and coo in the tops of the towering 
fir-trees, and maybe a splendid blue-grouse will thunder 
out from under the stroller's feet and disappear into the 
quivering curtain of aspen leaves. And in the evening 
the ringing melody of the thrush echoes from out some 
still abyss against the hushed thickets of the mountain 
sides. 

Below the pineries lies an ocean of rolling cedar-cov- 
ered foothills. Autumn is the time to see the foothills 
of New Mexico, and the pinion jay is the bird whose 
memory is indelibly associated in the mind of the bird- 
lover with the foothill country. Great flocks of these 
rollicking fellows wander about among the spicy groves 
of cedar and pinion, rending the crisp autumn air with 



The Bird Life of New Mexico 337 

their merry cries, and conducting themselves for all the 
world like a flock of shouting schoolboys out on a nutting 
tour of a sunny Saturday afternoon. Pinoneros they are 
called by the native people. The name has a ring to it 
which is singularly appropriate. Spanish names possess 
this quality of musical description to an extraordinary de- 
gree — witness also the cadornices, or little blue-gray 
foothill quail, known to science as the scaled partridge. 
The word has no particular literal meaning, but it some- 
how fits these swift- footed little fellows as they dart to 
cover among the sage bushes with raised crests and soft 
whistles of alarm. 

Fanning out from the foothills in great graceful sweeps, 
measured not in miles, but in scores of miles, lie the New 
Mexico plains. Even these great reaches of treeless 
country have their distinctive birds, — mostly quiet little 
sparrows, threshers, and larks that flit noiselessly from 
one little clump of snakeweed or pingue to another. The 
most characteristic bird of the plains is the burrowing owl. 
He often inhabits the prairie-dog towns, where he sits 
solemnly blinking at the mouth of his burrow. The real 
relation, or lack of relation, between this little owl and 
his prairie-dog neighbours presents an interesting field for 
ornithological study which has by no means been ex- 
hausted. 

The nearly birdless plains are a fitting interlude to pre- 
pare the traveler for that real paradise of birds — the 
river valley. Flanked by miles of treeless mesas, these 
valleys are like ribbons of oasis, threading the State in 
every direction, and crowded with birds of a hundred 
varieties. In the spring the grassy vegas ring with 
meadowlark music. Along the edges of the cotton wood 
bosque flash red and yellow tanagers, bright blue gros- 
beaks, and long-tailed magpies resplendent in black and 



338 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

white. Noisy chats scold from the willow thickets, and 
in the hedgerow and orchard the western mockingbird 
sings all day and all night. Sleek waterfowl splash and 
play on every pond, and swift winged doves dart in and 
out of the gnarled old cotton woods that line the roadside 
and the banks of the irrigation ditches. In the valleys of 
the southern part of the State the traveler also finds many 
unfamiliar species that belong to Old Mexico. The rose- 
coloured pyrrhuloxia, the vermilion flycatcher, the white- 
necked raven, the white-winged dove, the diminutive 
ground dove, and a dozen other semi-tropical species fur- 
nish a real treat to the bird-lover. And occasionally, in 
the southern foothills, the persistent observer may even 
find several species of parrots and paroquets, so rare that 
the scientists are not yet ready to recognize them as duly 
authenticated visitors on our side of the international 
boundary. But they are there, and who knows how many 
other species not yet scientifically recorded ? It is a rich 
field for the ornithologist — this border country — and 
truly thrilling discoveries are yet to be made in it. 

New Mexico is one of the few Western States which 
has awakened to the interest and value of her bird life. 
National Bird Refuges have been established on the 
waters impounded by the Elephant Butte Dam and the 
Carlsbad Dam, and the New Mexico Game Protective 
Association is now campaigning for the establishment of 
a third Refuge at Stinking Lake, which is one of the most 
wonderful breeding grounds for waterfowl in the whole 
West. The bird-lovers and real sportsmen of New Mex- 
ico are making a really earnest effort to prevent the de- 
struction of the wonderful variety of wild life with which 
nature has endowed their State. They have begun by 
eliminating partisan politics from their state game de- 
partment, which has resulted in a much better enforce- 



The Bird Life of New Mexico 339 

ment of the game laws. Forging ahead under their slo- 
gan, " Remember the Buffalo," the outlook for the actual 
practice of wild life conservation in the State is a par- 
ticularly favourable one. 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE FLORA OF NEW MEXICO 

To the technical botanist or the ordinary lover of flow- 
ers New Mexico is one of the most desirable States in 
the Union. For, while it is doubtful whether any other 
Sfeate, except California, and possibly Colorado and Texas, 
could present so large a list of interesting flora as New 
Mexico, it is still not half explored, and it is not im- 
probable that the future will see its catalogue considerably 
extended. 

Already about seven hundred varieties have been found, 
and scores of these are not only indigenous to the State, 
but were first found here, and many of them apparently 
do not exist elsewhere. The reason for this great va- 
riety is readily apparent to any one conversant with the 
topographical diversity of the State. Here are high 
mountain peaks, barren desert plains, rolling foothills, 
" staked plains," vast sand-mounds, well-watered valleys, 
elevated plateaus, the Jornada del muerto — a veritable 
desert of death — and all the richly clad mountain slopes 
where trees, plants, and flowers abound in luxuriance and 
variety. 

It should be interesting even to the general reader to 
follow what might be called the botanical history of New 
Mexico. The first known collector to visit the State in his 
professional capacity is one whose name is attached to 
many species peculiar to the West. It was Dr. A. Wis- 
lizenus, who accompanied Doniphan's expedition in 
1846-7, and entered the region from Kansas, striking 

340 



The Guardian of the Desert. 

From a Painting by Wallace L. DelVolf. 




Mr m '5^ 



W-i--1t^«w#|^ ft' 



The Flora of New Mexico 341 

Wagon Mound, Pecos, Santa Fe, Albuquerque and down 
the Rio Grande, over the Jornada del Muerto to the upper 
crossing of the Rio Grande. 

In 1849 ^i^d 185 1-2 Charles Wright, at the suggestion 
of Dr. Asa Gray, came to the Southwest to make botanical 
collections and spent some time in the State. He collected 
along the lower Rio Grande, at Mimbres and around 
Santa Rita, and also in the Organ Mountains. 

In 1853 an expedition was sent out by the federal gov- 
ernment under Lieut. Whipple, for the purpose of finding 
a railroad route from the Middle West through to Cali- 
fornia. The botanist of the expedition was Dr. J. M. Big- 
low. He did the major part of his work, however, east 
of Albuquerque, it being too late for successful botanizing 
when he passed further west. 

Again, in 1854, another railroad-route-exploring expe- 
dition (Pope's), collected plants and flowers, in the ex- 
treme south, above El Paso, and still another (Parke's), 
which entered by way of Santa Rita and went down the 
Rio Mimbres to the Rio Grande and thus to El Paso. 

It is rather remarkable that New Mexico should have 
so large a flora, for the State is relatively high above sea 
level, its lowest valleys being more than 3500 feet in alti- 
tude, while some of the mountains soar into the peerless 
sky far above timber line. These elevations, combined 
with the inland location of the country, produce climatic 
conditions of atmospheric humidity, variations and ex- 
tremes of temperature, and an intensity of light that are 
especially severe on all plant life. Only those plants 
can live that are peculiarly adapted to these conditions. 
The lack of moisture in the air is particularly hard upon 
plants that are accustomed to a humid atmosphere, since 
it increases the evaporation from their leaf surfaces to 
such a degree that they find they are able with great diffi- 



342 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

culty to get enough water from the ground to replace that 
lost by evaporation. 

The changes of temperature, too, both diurnal and an- 
nual, are extreme. The altitude renders the atmosphere 
thin and the lack of moisture heightens this effect. The 
heat of the direct rays of the sun shining through this thin 
and dry atmosphere, is intense, yet as soon as the sun 
goes down the drop in temperature is sudden, great and 
severe. The growing season, therefore, in New Mexico 
is very long, and the total quantity of heat received during 
the season much larger than the average. This tends to 
produce rapid growth in plants and trees, but shortens 
their lives. 

Sunlight is essential to the life of a plant and it must 
have it in proper quantity. Yet plants differ as much in 
the amount of light they need as in their demands for 
water. Some species require strong light, others only a 
small amount, while others thrive best when they get a 
quantity of shade. It is also a fact that some trees, 
while young, demand shade, yet when they mature they 
demand an abundance of light. Hence it will be seen 
that in New Mexico the light conditions — except, per- 
haps, on the slopes of the high mountains where the 
dense coniferous forests exist — are extremely severe, for 
the direct sunlight is exceptionally intense, and the re- 
flected light very strong. 

In view of these conditions, therefore, the wonder is 
not that there are so few varieties of plant life that thrive 
in New Mexico, but that there are so many that have 
adapted themselves to such an inhospitable environment. 

It is well to set forth these climatic conditions in clear 
and definite statement that their influences upon the 
State's botanical resources may not be forgotten. 
I, Very dry atmosphere; 2. Extreme daily variation in 



The Flora of New Mexico 343 

temperature; 3. Late spring frost; 4. Very high sum- 
mer temperature; 5. Very intense light. In addition it 
must be recalled that upon many of the plateaus there is 
a sparcity of soil and here and there relatively large quan- 
tities of alkaH. 

To those who wish to study the botany of New Mexico 
and its various light zones can be commended highly a 
small report issued by the Bureau of Biological Survey, 
entitled Life Zones and Crop Zones of New Mexico, 
by Vernon. Bailey. It is full of information and readable 
as a novel, and gives definite knowledge of the fauna of 
the State as well as the tree and plant life. 

There are certain regions in New Mexico that have 
been botanically studied and explored with unusual care 
and from this fact it might be assumed that the whole 
State is known equally well, but Paul C. Stanley in his 
Localities of Plants from New Mexico thus writes on 
this matter : 

Two localities in New Mexico are remarkable for the number of 
plants described from them, Santa Fe and Santa Rita. The reason 
for this is the fact that the first extensive collections made in the 
Southwest were made largely at these two places. Although there 
is hardly a county in New Mexico in which a few new species have 
not been found, it is not to be inferred that the flora of the Terri- 
tory has been thoroughly explored and that new plants are no longer 
to be discovered within its boundaries. This is far from being the 
case. With but few exceptions the areas that have been best ex- 
plored are those most easily reached by railroad. In the more re- 
mote parts of New Mexico there are hundreds of square miles that 
have never been visited by any botanical collector. When explored, 
these will reveal dozens of new plants to swell our list. Even in 
the best-known regions new plants are continually being found. 
More collecting has been done in the Organ Mountains than in any 
other part of the Territory, yet a botanist seldom visits them, limited 
in extent as they are, without finding something new to their flora. 

Elsewhere this same writer, in conjunction with E, O. 
Wooton, enlarges upon the fact as follows : 



344 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

As a result of our study of this rather ample material we have 
compiled a list of the plants of the State, which shows that the flora 
of New Mexico will compare favourably in number of species with 
that of any of the Western States. It is to be remembered that the 
plant life of the State is still imperfectly known, except in certain 
limited localities. Even in those areas which have been fully in- 
vestigated unknown plants are often turning up ; and there are ex- 
tensive ranges of mountains and hills, as well as stretches of plains, 
where little or no collecting has been done. For example, the Jemez 
Range, one of the largest in the State, has never been visited by a 
botanist. Fewer things of interest are to be expected there, how- 
ever, than in some of the regions near the boundaries, particularly 
on the eastern and southern sides. One of the writers in the summer 
of 191 1 collected in the northwestern corner of New Mexico and 
found more than a hundred species that had not been known pre- 
viously from the State. Equally productive would be collections 
made along the southern edge of New Mexico, especially in the 
Guadalupe and San Luis Mountains and about the south end of the 
Sacramentos. Along the western border there may be expected 
many Arizona species which have not yet been collected in New 
Mexico. When it is realized that the area of New Mexico is above 
one hundred and twenty thousand square miles, which is consider- 
ably more than the combined areas of New York and the New Eng- 
land States, and that the number of those who have collected ex- 
tensively in the region is less than a dozen, it is clear that there 
remains a fertile field for exploration by those interested in taxo- 
nomic botany. When new plants are still being found in New Eng- 
land, where for the past century or more hundreds of botanists and 
botanical collectors have been at work, it is evident that it will be 
many years before any botanist working in almost any part of New 
Mexico will fail to find plants that have not before been reported 
from the State. 

Perhaps the most striking features in its botany to 
the stranger who sees New Mexico for the first time is 
its cacti. While there are nothing hke so many here as 
in Arizona or California, it is in New Mexico that the 
traveler from the East first sees them; hence they are 
impressed upon the mind as an individualistic feature of 
this State, and the conception has become popular, viz., 
that New Mexico is essentially the home of the cactus. 
Another popular misconception is that any queer-looking, 




PALO VERDE. 






- I 


^!p^^ 


^^^^^^^^^ 


1 




^^^^^^^^^H^^ 


efs^3 


l5:^?r^;:!^3^^^ 


mm 



MESQUITE. DESERT FLORA. 

THREE ETCHINGS BY WALLACE L. DEWOLF. 

(See page 394.) 



The Flora of New Mexico 345 

spine-covered plant growing on a mesa or desert is a 
cactus. 

Already I have referred to the peculiar climatic condi- 
tions of New Mexico. These have a direct bearing upon 
the number and variety of the cactus growths. There 
are five genera found, viz., Opuntia, Mamillaria, Echino- 
cactus, Echino-Cereus, and Peniocereus, and in these 
there are known to exist in New Mexico among the 
Opuntia, 28 species; Mamillaria, 12 species; Echinocac- 
tus, 7 species; Echino-Cereus, 14 species; and Penio- 
cereus, one specie, making 62 varieties in all. Arizona 
has more than three times this number, hence it, rather 
than New Mexico, should be known as " the Thorny 
State." 

While a popular belief has sprung up that a cactus 
will grow anywhere on the desert, such is very far from 
the fact. Many varieties are extremely sensitive to cold, 
and where the temperatures vary so greatly as they do 
in New Mexico quite a number are unable to live. 

Few Eastern people have any idea how large a part 
the cactus plays in the food supply of the Indians and 
the poorer of the Mexicans of the Southwest. The 
prickly pear, or tuna, has as many varieties of fruit as 
an apple. It is pearlike in shape, and covered with spines, 
hence its name. He who would eat of it must learn to 
handle it properly : certainly not " without gloves," and 
if " firmly " then when the spines are removed. When 
the New Mexican wishes to eat or cook these pears they 
are generally impaled upon a wooden skewer, or other 
implement, and well peeled, the person doing the peeling, 
however, being very careful not to let thumb, fingers, or 
hand touch the unpeeled fruit. For the thorns are far 
worse than they appear; and there are incalculably more 
of them. It seems incredible that one even totally ig- 



346 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

norant of them could do what once I saw an Eastern 
tourist do. He left the car at some siding where we 
stopped soon after reaching New Mexico, ran and picked 
off a prickly pear from its lobe-like leaf of cactus in his 
handkerchief. He was still removing thorns when I 
bid him good-by in the Los Angeles depot two days 
later. 

The skin should be plentifully removed — there is 
enough of it. It is almost like the rind of a water- 
melon, and only the inner part of the fruit is worth eat- 
ing. Many strangers do not like the flavour at first, any 
more than they do ripe olives, fresh figs, tomatoes, casabas 
or persimmons. But those who acquire the taste are 
exceedingly fond of them. It is said that most, if not 
all, of the edible varieties were brought from Spain or 
Mexico by the Franciscans, for there is little or no flavour, 
and little flesh or juice in most of the native wild varie- 
ties. Still the Indians possibly had learned, in their sea- 
sons of famine, to eat even these, and were ready to en- 
joy to the full the better varieties wherever they came 
from. 

There is also a syrup made from the prickly pear, 
called by the Mexicans, Miel de Tuna — pronounced 
mee-el day too-nah — by boiling down the crushed pulp 
and then straining out the seeds. It is of the consistency 
of honey or molasses, and, after standing awhile, gradu- 
ally candies. 

The " cactus candy " so popular from New Mexico and 
Arizona is made from the barrel cactus, or nigger-head, 

— Mexican, hisnaga, Echinocactus wislczeni engleman 

— by boiling in one or two waters to take out the peculiar 
vegetable taste, then boiling in sugar or fruit syrup until 
candied. % 



CHAPTER XXII 

THE INFLUENCE OF NEW MEXICO UPON LITERATURE 

If a country is to be judged by the influence it exer- 
cises upon the artistic emotions and expressions of man, 
then, indeed, New Mexico must rank high. For few of 
the States have stimulated, as has she, so vast an amount 
of hterature of a high order, and in so many diverse 
fields, and been the inspiration and love of so large a 
number of literary artists. 

Before entering more fully upon the general sub- 
ject it may be interesting to the reader to learn how the 
geologic wonders of New Mexico have led to the en- 
largement of our scientific vocabulary. Captain Clarence 
E. Button is the writer, in his fascinating monograph 
published in the Sixth Annual Report of the U. S. Geo- 
logical Survey, entitled " Mount Taylor of the Zuni 
Plateau." He asks: 

By the way, what is a Mesa? What is the special significance of 
this term? And why is it used instead of good Anglo-Saxon? I 
will now answer these questions by asking another. Did it ever 
occur to the reader how poverty-stricken the (I will not say the 
English exactly, but) Anglo-American language is in sharp, crisp, 
definite topographic terms? English writers seem to have gathered 
up a moderate number of them, but they got most of them from 
Scotland within the past thirty or forty years. They are not a part 
of our legitimate inheritance from the Mother Country. In truth, 
we have in this country some three or four words which are avail- 
able for duty in expressing several scores of topographic character- 
istics. Anything that is hollow we call a valley, and anything that 
stands up above the surrounding land we call a hill or a mountain. 
But the Spanish — or Mexican, if you prefer — is rich in topo- 
graphic terms which are delightfully expresr'.ve and definite. There 

347 



348 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

is scarcely a feature of the land which repeats itself with similar 
characteristics that has not a pat name. And these terms are 
euphonious as well as precise: they designate things objective as 
happily and concisely as the Saxon designates things subjective. 
Therefore we use them. There are no others adapted to the pur- 
pose. A mesa means primarily a table. Topographically it is ap- 
plied to a broad, flat surface of high land, bounded by a cliff, the 
crest of which looks steeply down upon the country below. And 
the Plateau country is mesa, mesa everywhere — nothing but mesa. 
It is not at all necessary that the high tabular surface should be 
completely encircled, or irregularly but completely environed, by a 
descending cliff. One side may be cliff-bound, while the other dies 
away by a gentle, barely perceptible declivity into distant lowlands. 
Still it is a mesa. Or a few miles back of its crest line a second 
cliff may spring up to a higher flat beyond. Even so it is a mesa 
to the Mexican ; a mesa, though we might in this case call it a 
terrace. The Mexican sees but one side at a time, .and if that an- 
swers to the general conception it is enough for him. 

To any student of the growth and development of the 
American branch of the EngHsh language New Mexico 
is of vast importance. Not only has it enriched our scien- 
tific vocabulary, as indicated by Captain Button, but it was 
what inspired Lummis to his study of words of Spanish 
and Mexican origin that had become incorporated in our 
language. He has a chapter in his book on Mexico en- 
titled. The Aivakcning of a Nation, which interestingly 
discourses upon these words and which every student 
should read. His analysis of the words is more fasci- 
nating than a novel. 

Of course no student of New Mexico can ignore the 
first great historic work of Castafieda's Narrative of the 
journey of the great and first pathfinder Coronado. 
Cabeza de Vaca had blazed the way across the Continent, 
though it is now asserted by the highest authorities that 
he never touched the soil of what is now New Mexico. 
Marcos de Nizza and the negro Stephen were sent by the 
Viceroy Mendoza to spy out the land and see if the re- 
ports brought by Cabeza de Vaca might be relied upon. 



Influence Upon Literature 349 

Stephen's amorousness and arrogance led to his untimely 
death at Zuni, which Fray Marcos saw only by stealth. 
But his report was enough for Mendoza and the gold- 
lustful conquistadores, under Coronado. Castafieda's 
story of the Coronado Expedition, in its fine translation by 
George Parker Winship, published in the Sixteenth Re- 
port of the Bureau of American Ethnology, will ever be 
the basic stone of New Mexican history. 

Then came Onate, whose letters Bolton has published 
with elucidative notes. Belonging to this epoch is one 
of the remarkable books of all American Hterature. I 
think it is safe to affirm that New Mexico is the only State 
in the American union that has its early settlement and 
foundations of history told in poetry by one of the chief 
participants in the events. A larger account of this book 
is given in the special chapter; entitled " The Homeric 
Epic of New Mexico." 

Of almost equal importance is the Memorial of Fray 
Alonso de Benavides, written in 1630, and translated by 
Mrs. Edward E. Ayer of Chicago, and annotated by 
Frederick Webb Hodge, former Chief of the Bureau of 
Ethnology, and with an Introduction by Charles F. 
Lummis. 

Only three hundred copies of the Translation were pub- 
lished, and they are rare and valuable enough to be highly 
prized treasures. For in its Notes, twenty-two in num- 
ber, covering from pages 187 to 285 inclusive, there 
is a vast amount of condensed and well digested New 
Mexican History — spelled purposely with a capital, the 
value of which no student can over estimate. 

Of researches made in original documentary matter of 
New Mexican history no name stands higher than that of 
Adolph F. Bandelier, to whom I owe the title of this 
volume. I had the pleasure of meeting him in Santa Fe 



350 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

while he was engaged in the exploration of the little- 
known portions of the country and wri4;ing his now grow- 
ingly popular novel The Delight Makers. 

Following closely in the steps of Bandeher, but with 
all the advantage of clues and knowledge gained to work 
upon, with increased interest, which implies money to 
work and enlarged facilities. Professor Herbert Eugene 
Bolton, of the University of California, is doing work 
of incalculable benefit, and illimitable interest. He has 
delved into original archives in Texas, New Mexico, Old 
Mexico and Spain. He is indefatigable and untiring, and 
so glowing is the enthusiasm that burns in his own soul 
that it has inspired a body of young men and women 
to help in the work. With funds provided by an en- 
dowment by the " Native Sons of the Golden West," 
several students have been sent to Spain to dig out from 
the original letters, reports, documents, and registers, the 
complete history of matters of which our earlier students 
knew nothing or merely had glimpses of. 

The result of Professor Bolton's researches and those 
of his students are being published as rapidly as possibly, 
and they pour floods of light upon New Mexico, as well 
as Arizonian and Californian history. 

There is a good deal of fugitive literature on New 
Mexico found in various writings of the early years 
of the nineteenth century, as, for instance, Zebulon Pike's 
narrative of his enforced march to Santa Fe, and thence 
down the valley of the Rio Grande into Mexico. 

But of decided importance is the valuable report made 
to the Spanish Cortes, then sitting in Cadiz. Under the 
Napoleonic influence, King Ferdinand VII was forced 
to grant his people a liberal constitution and, under this, 
the Spanish colonies wfere allowed representation. The 
deputy elected in August, i8i8, from New Mexico, was 



Influence Upon Literature 351 

Pedro Bautista Pino, and he left for Spain Oct. 14, 181 1. 
He made a report on the country he represented, giving 
a full account of its products, its institutions, its social 
life, and its needs. This was deemed of such importance 
and so accurate in its details that it was reprinted in 
Mexico twenty-seven years later. There was another 
important report published in Puebla, Mexico, in 1832, 
written by Licenciado Antonio Barreiro, who was the 
representative of the Mexican Government in New Mex- 
ico. He gives breezy and searching comments on condi- 
tions and it is well for him, doubtless, that it was pub- 
lished after his work in the country was done and he 
had left it. 

Of an entirely different type but even more interesting 
— if less instructive — is a small volume, not often seen, 
entit-^ Prose Sketches and Poems. It was written by 
a young soldier named Albert Pike, who visited Santa 
Fe and Taos, and gives his personal experiences, some 
poems, and several romantic stories of New Mexico life. 
It was published in Boston, in 1834. 

Ten years later came George W. Kendall's Texan- 
Santa Fe Expedition, one of the much discussed, much 
abused, much defended books of New Mexico. It re- 
lated the story of the Texan expedition which was to 
result in New Mexico joining hands, politically, with 
Texas. Instead of attaining that result the members were 
marched down to the City of Mexico and treated to in- 
dignities, imprisonment and some of them to death. 

Inseparably connected with the history of New Mexico 
is the old Santa Fe trail, and it was inevitable that some 
one should put into literature at least a part of the in- 
teresting facts connected with this noted highway. Be- 
fore it was known as the Sante Fe trail, however, in 1844, 
Josiah Gregg had written his Commerce of the Prairies, 



352 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

which was published in New York the following year. 
This has become a classic, and is constantly referred to 
by historians and writers to-day. Its value can be un- 
derstood when it is known that a reprint of it was made 
in 1905, in Early Western Travels, edited by Dr. Reuben 
Gold Thwaites, and published by Arthur H. Clark Com- 
pany, of Cleveland, Ohio. It is interesting also to note 
here a fact, of which I was informed by Mrs. Governor 
Bradford L. Prince, viz., that the actual writing of this 
book was done by John Bigelow, later a noted American 
diplomat, but at that time a writer in the office of William 
Cullen Bryant, on the New York Evening Post, who 
personally recommended him for the work. There are 
scores of pages which one would delight to transfer bod- 
ily, but the interested reader must get this enchanting 
book and read it for himself. 

One may well say the same thing of Col. Inman's 
Santa Fe Trail. It gives a vivid account of the history 
of the development of commerce with New Mexico, and 
its pictures of scenes and methods of travel, etc., are 
graphic and interesting in the extreme. 

While Inman's Santa Fe Trail (a book which ought to 
be in every educated American's library), is a natural 
successor to Gregg's Commerce of the Prairies, there was 
a deluge of official literature flooded the country following 
the American Occupation of New Mexico. First came 
Major W, H. Emory's Notes of a Military Reconnais- 
sance from Fort Leavenworth to San Diego, then Lieut. 
J. W. Abert's Report of the Examination of Nezv Mex- 
ico, both containing interesting pictures and descriptions. 
In the same volume (as they were later bound with these 
two), appear the Journal of Philip St. George Cooke, 
from Santa Fe to San Diego, and the Journal of the ill- 
fated Capt. A. R. Johnston, of the First Dragoons, who 



Influence Upon Literature 353 

lost his life in a fight with the Californians at San 
Pasqual, California. These were all issued by the Gov- 
ernment Printing Office as official documents, in 1848. 
Two years later from the same office appeared the Re- 
port of Capt. R. B. Marcy's Route from Ft. Smith to 
Santa Fe, and Lieut. J. W. Simpson's Report of the 
Expedition to the Navaho Country. 

This latter work was of especial importance. Indeed 
it might be said to be epoch-forming. It was the first 
book to call explicit attention to the ruins of New Mex- 
ico, giving full descriptions of those of the Chaco Canyon 
and Mesa. Indeed it may well be termed the father of 
all literature on the Cliff and Cave Dwellings of this 
region, and it is still eagerly sought and read by those 
who are interested in this fascinating theme. 

Another historical work dealing with the American 
Occupation written at the time is John T. Hughes's 
Doniphan's Expedition. Alexander W. Doniphan was 
elected a Colonel by the volunteers of Missouri who 
joined Kearny's " Army of the West." A rather flam- 
boyant account of the journey to Santa Fe is given and we 
see Gen. Kearny start for California after the peace- 
able conquest of New Mexico. Before he went he or- 
dered Doniphan to proceed to Chihuahua and report there 
to Gen. Wool, as soon as Col. Price had arrived to relieve 
him. In the meantime Kearny had changed his mind, 
and had decided to send Doniphan to chastise the Nava- 
hos, which he did, crossing the Tunicha Mountains in 
winter, suffering great hardships, rounding up the In- 
dians and finally making one of the many treaties with 
the Navahos at the Ojo del Oso, Nov. 22, 1846. He 
then visited the Zunis, and shortly took up his march 
to Mexico. The story is of decided value and was re- 
printed many times, finally appearing as Senate Docu- 



354 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

ment No. 608, issued by the Government Printing Office 
in 1914. 

One of the most interesting and all-around-information 
books on New Mexico, soon after the American occupa- 
tion, is that entitled El Gringo. There are two books 
with this title, one being by Lieutenant Wise, of the 
U. S. Navy, and the other by W. H. H. Davis. The 
former one refers mainly to California and the journey 
thither by water. The latter is the one here referred 
to. It is rather a rare volume, and was published in New 
York, by the Harpers, in 1857. 

It gives a vivid and personal account of the ride over 
the Old Santa Fe trail by stage from Independence, Mo., 
when the rate was $150.00 per passenger, including board 
(such as it was) and transportation of forty pounds of 
personal baggage. The mail was then carried monthly. 
This was in November, 1853. While not as picturesque 
and humoresque a story as Mark Twain's later ride on the 
Overland Stage to Nevada, it is useful as a true picture 
of the daily experiences of at least one set of travelers. 
There were the usual breakdown, scares of Indians, 
storms, agreeable and disagreeable features. Then fol- 
low chapters on the History of New Mexico, fairly full 
and reliable in the then state of our knowledge; the 
Pueblo Indians ; Santa Fe and the manners and customs 
of the people, all of which records are as valuable his- 
torically as they are interesting. 

Davis later, at Doylestown, Pa., in 1869, published 
TJie Spanish Conquest of New Mexico. This may well 
be termed the first historical work dealing with the coun- 
try, and laid the foundation for a subsequent and more 
thorough treatment of the subject. 

The last seventeen chapters of this book were mainly 
written from the Spanish records in the Secretary's office 



Influence Upon Literature 355 

at Santa Fe, which had never before been translated. 
These old manuscripts are complete, and their genuineness 
is undoubted. Their contents include an account of the 
great Indian rebellion of 1680, and the subsequent ef- 
forts of the Spaniards to reconquer and hold the 
country. 

Three other writers have been true historians (exclu- 
sive of the critically useful and highly valuable work of 
Bandelier and Bolton), viz., L. Bradford Prince, Ralph 
E. Twitchell and Benjamin M. Read; all have written 
important books on New Mexico. 

General Lew Wallace in 1878 was appointed Governor 
of New Mexico by President Hayes, and for over two 
years lived in the old Palace in Santa Fe. It was there, 
he himself relates, that he wrote the last three chapters 
of his famous novel Ben Hur. His wife, Susan E. 
Wallace, who traveled considerably throughout the coun- 
try when it was much less known than to-day, also 
wrote a series of letters from the Palace which appeared 
in various Eastern publications, such as the Independent, 
Atlantic Monthly, etc. These letters were afterwards 
gathered together and published in book form under the 
title The Land of the Pueblos. Historically they are 
of little value, being rather misleading than otherwise, 
but in their descriptions there is a fresh vividness that is 
interesting, and some letters are both important and 
valuable as true pictures of her own impressions and ex- 
periences. 

In 1879 L. Bradford Prince came to New Mexico as 
its Chief Justice, appointed by President Hayes. He 
was born at Flushing, New York, in 1840. Of a 
scholarly turn of mind, he became much interested in 
the history of the new country to which he had come, and, 
in spite of the immense volume of work thrust on his 



356 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

shoulders in the courts, he found time to become, in 1882, 
President of the New Mexico Historical Society, and in 
1883, to publish his Historical Sketches of New Mexico 
from the Earliest Records to the American Occupation. 
He was later appointed Governor by President Benjamin 
Harrison, and has continued his historical researches, 
publishing in 1903, a pamphlet on The Stone Lions of 
Cochiti, in 1910, New Mexico's Struggle for Statehood, 
in igi2, A Concise History of New Mexico, and in 191 5, 
what I regard as his most important work, Spanish Mis- 
sion Churches in New Mexico. Governor Prince's work 
has been of decided helpfulness to the general student and 
he has done much to popularize the history of New Mex- 
ico, and add to our knowledge about the old Franciscan 
Missions, which are so much earlier than those of Cali- 
fornia. 

In 1880-1890 the Reverend Horatio Oliver Ladd was 
sent to Santa Fe by one of the Protestant denominations 
to aid in planting educational institutions. He traveled 
extensively over the then territory of New Mexico, be- 
came enamoured with it, was privileged to read the un- 
published, as well as the published writings of Bandelier, 
and was thus rendered well qualified to write a Story of 
New Mexico when the D. Lothrop Company, of Boston 
• — who were publishing a series dealing with all the States 
— asked him to do so. It is a fairly-well considered 
volume of nearly five hundred pages and gave to many 
thousands their first idea of this fascinating land. 

Then charmed and saturated with the interest the 
Navaho Indians had awakened in him he wrote a novel 
entitled Chunda, in which he shows the effect of con- 
version to Christianity of one or two Navaho children. 
The book is entirely conventional, written from the stand- 
point of the Episcopalian missionary, but gives some 



Influence Upon Literature 357 

fairly accurate pictures of Navaho Indian life, manners, 
customs, homes and their picturesque environment. 

Less worthy of note, and still deserving mention be- 
cause of the praiseworthy intent of its author, Henry 
R. Brinkerhoff, an officer in the U. S. Army, is another 
novel entitled Nah-nee-tah, a Tale of the Navahos, pub- 
lished by J. H. Soule & Co., of Washington, D. C, in 
1886. The author evidently — as stated in his Preface 
— had ideas of publishing a carefully prepared scien- 
tific monograph upon these nomads of Western New 
Mexico. But he did not know the language, and from his 
own statements it is evident he did not know how to go 
to work to penetrate the natural reserve of the Navaho 
when approached by strangers who seek to learn the in- 
nerness of their lives. 

The result is a statement which contains many things 
far removed from the truth as revealed by more success- 
ful students, and a book which, while evidently written 
in deep sympathy with the Navahos, fails to give the 
reader any adequate picture of them. 

Of entirely different character, and approximating to 
the work of Bandelier in accuracy, and going beyond 
Bandelier in its intimate knowledge of the living Navaho, 
are the writings of Washington Mathews, also an army 
officer, who spent several years at Fort Wingate, N. M., 
learned the language, became intimate with some of the 
leading shamans, hatalis, or chanters, laboriously wrote 
down many of their songs, chants, traditions and legends, 
and gave them to the world in several fascinating volumes. 
His Navaho Legends is a classic; and his Night Chant, 
published by the American Museum of Natural History, 
is a revelation of aboriginal methods of thought which 
will delight the real student. 

In the same category, though less complete, is the 



358 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

work of Col. James Stevenson, who also studied the Night 
Chant of the Navahos, and embodied the results in a 
monograph published in the Eighth Annual Report of the 
Bureau of American Ethnology. 

Undoubtedly Col. Stevenson's profound interest was 
what excited the determination of his wife, Matilda Coxe 
Stevenson, to follow his lines of investigation. For years 
she studied at the various pueblos of New Mexico, espe- 
cially Zia and Zuni, and in later years at Santa Clara, and 
other pueblos on the Rio Grande. I had the honour 
and privilege of her friendship and have chatted many 
hours with her at her ranch-home not far from Espanola, 
where her later work was done. Her Religious Life of 
the Zuni Child, in which she vividly and sympathetically 
tells of many peculiar customs connected with the child 
life of the Zunis, and her monograph on the pueblo of 
Zia, give her an established place among careful 
ethnological students, and among the literati of New 
Mexico, but her greatest work is a colossal monograph of 
over 600 folio pages, and hundreds of illustrations, upon 
the Zuni, which takes up the entire space of the Twenty- 
third Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology. 

Earlier than the work either of Colonel or Mrs. Steven- 
son was that of Lieutenant Frank Hamilton Cushing, one 
of the most deeply sympathetic, winning and successful 
ethnologists of the American world. He was no mere 
pedant scientist, probing daintily or ruthlessly into human 
pasts and presents for their cataloguing and classification, 
but he was overflowing with red-blooded sense of human 
brotherhood, and sought to understand the heart-motions 
of the people he enjoyed to study. Among the most en- 
trancing pages of the literature of New Mexico must be 
placed his My Adventures in Zuni, published in February 
to May, 1883, in the Century Magazine. These articles 



Influence Upon Literature 359 

were followed by another series in the Millstone, during 
1884-1886, on Zimi Breadstuffs, and two wonderfully 
interesting and illuminating monographs in the Second 
and Thirteenth Reports of the Bureau of American 
Ethnology, respectively, on Zuni Fetiches and Zuni Crea- 
tion Myths. These contributions to New Mexican litera- 
ture show the profound knowledge Gushing had been able 
to obtain of the operations of the Zuni mind. At his 
death a volume of Zuni Folk Tales was published which 
he had collected and edited. This also adds valuable and 
important knowledge to our aboriginal lore. 

Almost equally valuable, though a little coloured by 
his literary instinct which demanded that he make a 
" good story " of each one, is Lummis's collection of 
Tiguan folk stories and legends, entitled The Man Who 
Married the Moon. The introduction gives a fine pic- 
ture of the scene, as one of the old story-tellers gathers 
the younger ones about him. 

Earlier than this book of Indian Stories are his Tramp 
Across the Continent, which tells in graphic and readable 
fashion how he walked from one ocean to the other. It 
was on this trip that he fell in love with New Mexico 
and vowed to return again to it and make it better known. 
Then he wrote his New Mexico David and Other Stories, 
and later, The Enchanted Burro, (more stories), and his 
noteworthy Land of Poco Tiempo. His Spanish Pion- 
eers, too, deals with the early history of New Mexico, 
written in simple and entertaining fashion for children, 
as is also one of his earlier and more popular books 
Some Strange Corners of our Country. In his magazine 
Out West he also gave many interesting pages to the 
history, the Indians, the scenery and life in New Mexico 
and I doubt whether any author has done more to popular- 
ize the country and excite interest in it than he. 



360 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

His stories certainly possess the " local colour " of 
New Mexico to perfection. One feels the bracing air of 
the nights and mornings ; the warm or hot sunshine, with- 
out moisture or mugginess, of the midday; the pellucidly 
clear atmosphere; the velvet sky of night, studded with 
brilliantly clear stars ; the peculiar shades and tones of 
the landscapes; the vivid colouring of some of the rocks; 
the forbidding areas of the lavas ; the snow-crowned pur- 
ity of the mountain summits ; the treacherous lurkings of 
the safe-looking quicksands ; the sleepy flowing of the 
half-hidden streams; their sudden arousement and dan- 
gerous power at flood-times; the picturesque adobes of 
the Mexicans ; the interesting three or more storied houses 
of the Pueblo Indians ; the charm of colour caused by the 
blues, blacks and reds of their blankets and head-bands; 
the red of the strings of chili peppers hung on their white- 
washed walls ; their fascinating and complex dances, 
with the weird Katchina headdresses ; their quaint and pa- 
tient burros — these and a hundred and one features he 
has permanently " fixed " with the chemical alembic of 
his brain and skilful pen. And not less surely than the 
observable things has he given us true pictures, portraits, 
intimate and reliable, of the people. The whites he sel- 
dom refers to, except those Spanish who have the white 
skin and clear blue eyes. He is generally more interested 
in the lowly Mexican and the Indian — Pueblo, Navaho, 
and Apache. 

Lummis is essentially a story-teller, whether he learned 
the art from his preacher father, absorbed it unconsciously 
from that mother whose untimely taking away he has 
so exquisitely and poetically portrayed, or gained it from 
hearing the Indians tell their stories of " the old," no 
one can gainsay that he possesses it to perfection. Take 
his telling of the story of the Enchanted Mesa. You 



'Influence Upon Literature 361 

hear the Governor make his proclamation that the people 
must go down the next day to care for their fields. You 
see their terraced houses ; the women washing their long 
black hair from ollas of rainwater; Katzimo, the ac- 
cursed, the Enchanted Mesa, the island of rock a thou- 
sand feet high (Lummis's excusable exaggeration — it 
seems a thousand, in reality it is less than three hundred) ; 
a Pueblo boy approaching his father and learning that he 
must stay home and care for his sick mother. The fol- 
lowing morning's mental pictures come easily from the 
graphic descriptions : the procession of men, women and 
children starting and climbing down the gnawed-out cleft 
of the mesa side and down, down, the pecked-out hand- 
and foot-holes of the sandstone column to the valley be- 
neath ; the careful watching by the lad, A'-chi-te, lest the 
dread Apaches might come ; then the coming of the storm ; 
the crashing down of the house; Achite's climb down the 
ladder ; his leap across the swirling torrent at the base of 
the column ; his wild run to his father eight miles away ; 
the unbelievable fall of the ladder-rock; the sad return of 
the Acomese to the foot of the cliff they would never 
again chmb; and their heart-rending watching of the two 
crazed women above who could not climb down, and 
whom they were unable to reach or succour. 

How vivid it all is! No wonder Professor Libbey 
wanted to climb to the top of the Katzimo as scores of 
others had wished, and that he felt disappointed at what 
he found there. But this I have related in its own chap- 
ter to which the interested reader is referred. 

Let the following be an illustration of one type of 
Lummis's stories, — not a usual one — but no better than 
a score of others he has told. 

It has a more or less respectable paternity among the 
Scotch, Irish, French, English and Italians. I have 



362 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

found a variant of this story current with all these peo- 
ples, and in their literature, but in not one of them is it 
told with the consummate mastery here displayed. It is 
used by Lummis to illustrate the conservative character 
of business methods among the elder population of New 
Mexico. 

Cristobal Nunez and Transito Baca are two venerable residents of 
Llanito, brothers-in-law, and equally addicted to legitimately ob- 
tained hiccoughs. Having amassed a few round pesos by labour 
at a sheep-shearing, they formed a partnership, bought ten gallons 
of whiskey in Santa Fe, and started over mountainous roads to 
retail it in outlying plazas from a small cart. Each knowing the 
other's failing, they swore a solemn oath that neither would give 
the other a drop during the trip; and thus forearmed, they set out. 
They had spent every cent, save a nickel which Cristobal had acci- 
dentally retained. 

" Valgame Dios!" groaned Cristobal, after they had gone a few 
miles, " but it is very long without to drink. For the love of the 
Virgin, cunado, give me a little to me." 

" But how ! That thou not rememberest our compromise? " asked 
the virtuous Transito. 

Cristobal groaned again, and rode a few miles in silence. Then an 
idea percolated through his shaggy locks — the nickel in his pocket. 

" It is truth, compadre, that we compromised not to give us not 
one drop. But of the to sell was nothing said. See ! That I have 
ciyico centavos. Sell me a drinklet to me." 

'"Sta biieno!" said Transito, pocketing the nickel and pouring 
his companion a small dose. " The saints are witnesses that I kept 
my oath. I give not, but sell." 

Everything takes its time in New Mexico ; but in half an hour the 
inspiration got across the wagon to Transito. 

" Carrambas! How buy not I a drinklet tamhien? I have cinco 
centavos now. Sell-me a little to me, compadre." And Cristobal 
did so, thereby regaining his nickel. 

" But wait-me a so-little, and I will buy a drinklet from thee also, 
that we may drink joined." 

Back went the nickel to Transito ; and in a moment the two old 
men were clinking glasses mutually, " a la vuestra salud, compadre." 
This seemed more social, till a disturbing thought occurred to 
Transito. 

" Pero hombre! Thou hast had two drinks, and I only one. Go, 
sell-me to me another, that we are equals." 



Influence Upon Literature 363 

This logic was not to be gainsaid; and Cristobal doled out the 
whiskey and resumed the nimble coin. Just then a trace broke. 

" Ill-said horses ! And of ill-said fathers and mothers ! That 
now we have to camp here. To-morrow we will fix the harness." 

But they did not fix it to-morrow, nor the next day, nor the next. 
They just stayed in camp and attended strictly to business — which 
was remarkably good. Now Cristobal was a merchant, and Transito 
customer; and now al contrario. No one else came along to disturb 
the routine of trade, until the third day, when a sheep-herder found 
two white-headed men sleeping beside an empty ten-gallon keg. A 
much-worn nickel lay in one half-closed fist, and the wool-propeller 
took it along for luck. 

"And how to you went the journey?" people asked in Llanito. 

" Mala suerte," sighed Cristobal sadly. " We sold all our whiskey ; 
but some ladron robbed to us asleep of all we had taken in." 

In Lummis's story of the Penitente Brothers the same 
mastery of telhng is evident. How he makes you feel 
the creeping sensations of mystery at the hearing of the 
doleful wail of the pitero's pipe, and how he compels 
attention to the secrecy with which the curious must carry 
on his investigations. 

Colonel Ralph E. Twitchell, the third of the quartet of 
serious historians of New Mexico, is an attorney of a 
strong literary and historic bent, who for years resided 
at Las Vegas. He first wrote a series of articles for 
the Reports of the Bar Association dealing with the lives 
of the early Territorial Judges. In 1909 appeared his 
first pretentious historical work entitled : The History of 
the Military Occupation of New Mexico from 1846 to 
1851. This was followed, in 191 1 and 1912 by his 
Leading Facts of New Mexican History, a monumental 
work in two volumes, that will long be the standard work 
for all future historians to draw from. The volumes 
give a clear outline of New Mexican history, well written 
and well digested, together with a vast number of notes 
which further elucidate the text and enforce the author's 
deductions. So impressed were the people of New Mex- 



364 New Mexico, Land of Delight Make rs 

ico with this stupendous work that the legislature of 1914 
passed an act authorizing Col. Twitchell to publish The 
Spanish Archives of New Mexico, one volume dealing 
with the vast quantity of original documents, etc., in the 
office of the Surveyor General, and the second with the 
records carried from the territory in 1903 and now in the 
library of Congress in Washington. With these volumes 
in hand the student desirous of consulting the original 
sources of New Mexican History during Spanish days, 
finds his labour reduced to a minimum. For several 
years past Col. Twitchell has resided in Santa Fe, and 
has published many interesting historic sketches in Old 
Santa Fe, a quarterly magazine of high class of which 
he is practically the founder and editor. 

The fourth of the historic quartet is Benjamin M. 
Read, a native Spanish New Mexican, whose familiarity 
with the original archives has enabled him to make sev- 
eral valuable contributions to local historical knowledge. 
He first published his Synoptical Sketch of the Mexico- 
American War, and followed this in 191 1 with an Illus- 
trated History of New Mexico written in Spanish, the 
translation of which appeared the following year. Since 
then he has published several lesser works and at the pres- 
ent writing has two or three important volumes under 
way. 

Small but interesting historic volumes have also been 
issued, two by Rev. James H. Defouri, viz., Sketch of the 
Catholic Church in New Mexico, in 1889, ^^^ The 
Martyrs of New Mexico, 1893, and one by Archbishop 
J. B. Salpointe, Soldiers of the Cross, in 1898. The Rev. 
Thomas Harwood also has issued two volumes. New 
Mexico Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
dealing with the activities of his church, but save as his- 
toric material, none of these really rank as literature. 



Influence Upon Literature 365 

On the other hand, there is quite a good deal of fiction 
both in magazines and books, some of it of a high class, 
dealing with New Mexico. Undoubtedly the finest of 
these are the books written by Eugene Manlove Rhodes, 
two of which I have recently read with unqualified pleas- 
ure. Rhodes was born in Nebraska in 1869, and his 
father was Hinman Rhodes, Colonel of the 28th Illinois 
Inf. Volunteers. He went to New Mexico as a cow- 
puncher in 1 88 1 and remained there until 1906, except 
for about a year when he attended the University of the 
Pacific, at San Jose, California. His books are proof 
that he knows the business of bronco-busting thoroughly, 
and that he is fully familiar with that part of New Mexico 
in which he toiled. How one can read his love for the 
country in his vivid and striking descriptions ! 

As word pictures they equal and surpass almost any- 
thing ever written of the country. They have a vividness 
of colour that reminds one of the landscapes of Tintoretto 
or the sunsets of Turner. His Bransford in Arcadia in- 
troduces a cowboy character as distinctly a creation as any 
of the characters of Dickens, Thackeray or George Eliot, 
who is gifted with a quiet yet delicious humour that keeps 
one's risibles ever in delightful titillation. His West is 
West, published by the H. W. Fly Company of New 
York, will add much to his reputation. His stories have 
a strength and vigour that denote increasing mastery, and 
if one cares for true pictures, graphically given, of men 
who live roughly, intensely and vigorously in the open, he 
will find in this author those qualities that will impress 
and captivate him. There are surprising and daring 
qualities in his humour, too, that are very amusing, though 
at first some readers feel annoyed at the trick played upon 
them. For instance, for one of his chapter headings he 
gives us the following lines : 



366 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

Oh woman ! in our hours of ease 
Uncertain, coy and hard to please; 
But seen too oft, familiar with thy face 
We first endure, then pity, then embrace! 

It looks all right, and reads all right, and yet we know 
there is something wrong about it, and when that some- 
thing dawns upon us, we are immensely tickled at the 
crafty fraud that has been perpetrated upon us. This 
spirit permeates the whole of Mr. Rhodes's writing. 

Then, too, he knows his men, his material, as only one 
who has lived with them year in and year out, bunked 
with them, eaten, ridden, caroused, worked, suffered, en- 
joyed with them under all conditions, can do. This gives 
his books a distinctively historic value, for they can be 
relied upon as giving faithful portrayals of a life that is 
rapidly passing. 

Of an entirely different character in New Mexican 
literature are the spontaneous song-effusions of the cow- 
boys. 

While the super-critics may condemn them and refuse 
them a place as literature I would rather accept the judg- 
ment of Professor Barrett Wendell who, in speaking of 
Cowboy Songs, collected by John A. Lomax (published 
by Sturgis & Walton Co., New York, 1916), says: 

In this collection of American ballads, almost if not uniquely, it 
is possible to trace the precise manner in which songs and cycles of 
songs — obviously analogous to those surviving from older and 
antique times — have come into being. The facts which are still 
available concerning the ballads of the Southwest are such as should 
go far to prove, or to disprove, many of the theories advanced con- 
cerning the laws of literature as evinced in the ballads of the old 
world. 

Such learned matter as this, however, is not so surely within my 
province, ... as is the other consideration which made me feel, 
from my first knowledge of these ballads, that they are beyond dis- 
pute valuable and important. In the ballads of the old world, it is 
not historical or philological considerations which most readers care 



Influence Upon Literature 367 

for. It is the wonderful, robust vividness of their artless yet su- 
premely true utterance, it is the natural vigour of their surgent, 
unsophisticated human rhythm. It is the sense, derived one can 
hardly explain how, that here is expression straight from the heart 
of humanity; that here is something like the sturdy root from which 
the finer, though not always more lovely, flowers of polite literature 
have sprung. At times when we yearn for polite grace, ballads may 
seem rude; at times when polite grace seems tedious, sophisticated, 
corrupt, or mendacious, their very rudeness refreshes us with a new 
sense of brimming life. 

I should much like to quote some of these songs, but 
the limits of space sternly forbid. 

Another feature of New Mexican literature must not 
be overlooked. We have considered the songs of the 
cowboy. These are of American origin. But there is 
a vast treasure of folk-lore songs of Mexican origin, con- 
taining a wealth of allusions to love and family, social 
customs and the like, that is known only to the native. 
Few Americans have studied in this field ; few have known 
there was such a field. Lummis, however, has not ig- 
nored it, and in his Land of Poco Tienipo he has devoted 
a chapter to the subject, with a luminous Introduction, 
and a number of the songs, both tunes and words. In 
this he has done excellent service, for conditions are 
rapidly changing in New Mexico, and another decade or 
two will hear the last of most of these songs. 

How often have I enjoyed these songs, even when I 
did not completely understand the words, at weddings, 
at night by the quiet hearth of a paisano, or by the camp- 
fire of a sheep-herder. Yet few of the singers were 
sweet-voiced. As Lummis quaintly expresses it : " The 
paisano sings in palpable doubt of his own voice. . . ." 

The accompanying photograph is of a New Mexican 
" Vocalist," who sang a dozen or more songs at a native 
wedding I had the pleasure of attending. He was ac- 



368 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

companied wfth the guitar and violin, the latter being 
played by a blind man. In piercing, straining, high- 
pitched falsetto, fiercely rolling his r's, but letting his 
words slip and slide hither and thither as he willed, his 
songs still had a vigour, a verve, and a point that won him 
vociferous applause. 

As late as 19 17 a volume entitled S chat-Chen; the His- 
tory, Traditions and Narratives of the Qiieres Indians 
of Laguna and Acoma, was published. It is by John M. 
Gunn, formerly an employee of the Santa Fe railway, 
who, in his cabin, in the solitude of winter nights, and un- 
der the stars of the midsummer nights' sky, won the confi- 
dence of the Indians who told him their legends, etc. He 
does not say, in the book, whether he has mastered the 
language of the Queres, though I am inclined to the 
belief that he has, for I knew Mr, Gunn over twenty 
years ago, when he first began his studies with the 
Indians. 

Among other stories that he presents is an interesting 
one which shows how the Indians regard • the gods as 
aiding them in their fights. The Sto-ro-ka and Ka-tsi-na 
warred with each other; each using bows and arrows. 
But the strings of bows of the Sto-ro-ka were made of 
the fibers of the soap-weed, while those of the Ka-tsi-na 
were of deer and antelope sinews. As the battle raged 
a terrific storm of rain and hail came upon the warriors. 
The bow-strings of the Ka-tsi-na were rendered limp 
and useless by the rain, while those of the Sto-ro-ka were 
made more tense and efficient by the wetting, and conse- 
quently the Sto-ro-ka won the battle. 

A treaty was then made between the chiefs, and in 
order to preserve it, the history of the fight and the con- 
ditions of the treaty were made in hieroglyphics on a 
smooth sandstone bluff which stands some eight or ten 




Photograph bv George Wharton James. 

A NEW MEXICO 



VOCALIST. 



Influence Upon Literature 369 

miles west of the Jaralosa Spring and about twenty-five 
miles northwest of the Salt Lake of Zuni. 

If this story be true it is one of the most important 
of contributions to our knowledge of American Indian 
pictographs. 

A vast amount of material on the Mexicans and In- 
dians of New Mexico has been published in the various 
church papers of those who have been engaged in seeking 
to convert them from their native religious ideas and 
modes of life. The major portion of this material that 
I have seen is ill-digested, ill-informed, inchoate stuff 
that was not worth the cost of setting up into type. Most 
of it is misleading — possibly not intended to be so — 
but written by half ignorant, self -conceited religionists 
of a fanatical turn of mind, who assumed that everything 
contrary to their mode of thought and life, and especially 
of religion, must necessarily be heathenish and to be con- 
demned. Though myself a Christian man, and for years 
a minister of a Protestant church, I am compelled to con- 
fess that by far the major part of the so-called mission- 
ary effort that I have observed, unless it was expended 
in the simplest educational endeavour, was not only use- 
less, but actually mischievous and evil in its effect upon 
it objects. It took away the simple faith they had, which 
did ennoble and purify their lives, made them chaste, in- 
dustrious, good fathers, honest, truthful and helpful to 
each other (I am speaking now of the Indians), and in- 
stead made them cynical, disbelievers, sycophants for 
the material good that came to them with their acquies- 
cence in the belief of the missionaries, liars, unreliable, 
and treacherous to their kin. 

One of the better class of the missionaries, however, 
whom I met in the early days, was the Reverend John 
Menaul. He was then the Presbyterian missionary at 



370 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

Laguna, had studied the Keres tongue, until he could 
both speak and write it, had established a printing-press 
and therefrom issued portions of the New Testament, a 
hymn-book, catechism, etc., in the Indian tongue. 

Though necessarily he regarded the religious ideas 
of the Pueblos as heathenism, devil-worship, and where 
the simple phallicism of a primitive people asserted itself 
— as it does in all aboriginal worship, — obscene, he 
did see some of the good points of their religion. 

In considering the literature of New Mexico it would 
be negligent to ignore some of the remarkable pleadings, 
judgments and decisions rendered by the courts. It is 
not always that one may find " literature " in dry legal 
tomes, yet many cases of the New Mexican archives read 
more fascinatingly than any novel. Take, for instance, 
Judge Kirby Benedict's decision in the case where cer- 
tain De la O and others had sued the Pueblo of Acoma 
for six hundred dollars which they claimed the Indians 
had pledged themselves to pay for the return of the 
title deeds to their land. With biting sarcasm the judge 
riddles the case of the plaintiffs. 

These quaint and remarkable decisions have been pre- 
served by Colonel Twitchell in Old Santa Fe. 

One of the latest to enter the field of New Mexican 
literature is Miss Rose Henderson. With keen poetic 
insight and equally fine powers of expression she gives, 
in her verse, her conceptions of the large and new coun- 
try into which fate has thrust her. 

She is a graduate of Drake University, Des Moines, 
Iowa, and for a time was Literary Editor, then Dramatic 
Editor, and finally, for three years. Associate Editor of 
the Register and Leader of that city. Then she went 
to New York as literary critic of the Evening Post of the 
metropolis, at the same time writing for the magazines 



Influence Upon Literature 371 

and the most representative of Eastern newspapers. 
Came the illness of her sister and it was this that called 
her to New Mexico, where she joined the faculty of the 
State Normal School, at Silver City, in the summer of 
1916. 

Here are two of her purely New Mexican poems. 
I wish I might quote more : 

THE BORDER 

Stretches of yellow, glaring sand, 
Gray dust smarting with alkali, 
Mesquite huddled on either hand, 
And a beaming, sun-drenched sky. 

Creak of leather and clank of steel, 
Khaki village and sun-burned men, 
Rising clouds when the horses wheel 
Back to the camp again. 

Mess and gossip and drill and rest, 
Night and the white stars thickly sown, 
Moonrise over the ragged crest, 
And the coyote's dreary moan. 

Hot gray rocks where the lizard runs, 
Skulking greasers in haggard bands. 
Swift brown horsemen, the click of guns, 
And a splash of blood on the sands. 

— The Independent. 

SPRING: NEW MEXICO 

Spring crept over the purple hills. 

Over the yellow, sun-baked sands. 

No wild music of April rills, 

But her hands 

Slim and wanton and softly white, 

Swam in the windy, cloudless night. 

Spring danced over the cactus plains, 
Vaguely tender in timid green, 



372 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

Veiled in the sudden, fleeting rains 
Silver sheen. 

No mad riot of buds, and yet, 
Wild red poppies and mignonette 
Flung from her floating, garland gown, 
Fluttered down. 

Spring fled out of the panting south, 
Drooping eyelids and burning mouth, 
Blown gold hair and a robe of mist — 
Desert-kissed. 

— The Poetry Magazine, Chicago. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

THE INFLUENCE OF NEW MEXICO UPON ART 
THE TAOS SOCIETY OF ARTISTS 

In the painter's art, as in literature, the Southwest 
(New Mexico) has contributed to America of the high- 
est and the best. In determining the artistic value of 
an object, a place, an environment the question of in- 
spiration is the chief factor. That which inspires, stim- 
ulates, urges the artist to high and noble endeavour, which 
furnishes his imagination, supplies his dream with tan- 
gible materials, is a priceless treasure, not only to him 
personally, but to the nation at large. It should never be 
forgotten that it is a nation's ideals, and the way they 
are striven after, that make a nation's greatness. It is 
not alone the soldier in the field, and the statesman in 
the halls of legislation, that win fame and glory for his 
native land. It has well been said that " an artist in his 
studio, a writer at his desk, or a composer at his instru- 
ment, may struggle for a national ideal valiantly, and 
often with as great a personal sacrifice, as the soldier in 
the trench. But the spirit of war — the willingness to 
suffer for and defend an ideal — must be in them all. 
And it is this spirit which counts — no matter what form 
of activity it takes — in the high achievement of any na- 
tion." 

New Mexico has stimulated the artist and supplied the 
material for the achievement of his high ideal. It has 
given him subjects native to our soil, thai are distinctive 
and historic, appealing to the wide gamut of peculiar 

373 



374 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

American art expression, and materially extending it. So 
strong has been this distinctive inspirational influence that 
it has led to the foundation of the Taos Society of Artists. 
In a former chapter the artistic conditions and environ- 
ment of Taos have been fully described. This chapter 
gives the history of the art colony, now a permanent fea- 
ture of its daily life. 

It may be these artists have not formed, will not form, 
a " school," yet it cannot be denied that they have in- 
fluenced, most powerfully, the course of American art. 
Whence has come the increasing interest in pictures of 
the American Indian? How has that interest been met 
and fostered? The answers to these and similar ques- 
tions cannot ignore the members of the Taos Society of 
Artists. 

Twenty-five or more years ago J. H. Sharp, who was 
born in Bridgeport, Ohio, in 1859, ^"d who had studied 
under Verlat in Antwerp, Jean-Paul Laurens and Ben- 
jamin Constant in Paris, and was then the Instructor of 
Art in the Cincinnati Art Museum, wandered into New 
Mexico and happened upon Taos. Its silent, stolid, stal- 
wart, secretive Indians attracted, allured, intrigued him. 
His artistic eye saw the unnumbered pictures waiting to 
be seized and transcribed, and, though he did not fully 
realize it at the time, this chance visit was largely to shape 
the course of his future life. Seven years later Bert 
Phillips and E. L. Blumenschein, carrying out a cher- 
ished plan, long formulated, of making a sketching trip 
in a wagon, came to Taos. As Blumenschein says : 

" The month was September, and the fertile valley 
a beautiful sight, and inspiration for those who ply the 
brush for happiness. The primitive people of this out- 
of-the-way region were harvesting their crops by sun- 
light and by moonlight. Brown people they were, both 



Influence of New Mexico Upon Art 375 

Mexicans and Indians, happy people with happy children, 
in a garden spot protected by mountains, — the ' Blood 
of Christ ' mountains the Spanish priests had named 
them. And one can't tell about Taos without dwelling 
on the mountains that box in the valley on three sides. 
The great plateau of the American Southwest runs from 
the west to the foot of this range. There, where the 
creeks spill down into the desert, are trees and earth that 
only need man's care to produce all that man needs, 
frijoles and maize. So the brown man came here long 
before the Spaniard, and the Indian pueblo — that re- 
markable community home — was built at the mouth of 
Taos Canyon in the stone age. 

" The Indians of Taos, pocketed in a northern corner 
of New Mexico, have resisted all enemies for these many 
centuries during which they gradually developed the 
grand little democracy of the Pueblos, self-governing, 
self-supporting and self-respecting. They have been in- 
fluenced by the northern plains Indians and by the Span- 
iards, but have always maintained their customs and 
their religion even until now, when they are struggling 
against the mighty white race that threatens to swallow 
them up and spit them out again, servants, with short 
hair and clad in overalls! In their executive under- 
ground councils the officers elected by the people make 
rules to counteract all the outside influences that might 
destroy their traditions, change their native costume, 
bring a mixture of white blood into the race, upset the 
beautiful nature worship. And so far the old wise men 
have done well. The monthly dances are tributes of 
thanks to their great gods above for the corn and the 
beans; the Pueblo blood is not mixed with white; and 
more to our particular point, the Indian of Taos wears the 
clothes of an Indian. 



376 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

" We had to write this little about the Pueblo inhabi- 
tants, if only to counteract the impression so common 
in our country that our Indians are not quite respectable. 

" The two artists who stopped at Taos on iheir wan- 
dering journey found so much to admire and respect, and 
were so deeply moved by the sights and life of this beau- 
tiful valley, that they decided they had wandered far 
enough and here was work for a lifetime. 

" Thus began the Taos art colony, now so well known 
in the United States." 

Out of this " Colony, sprang the Taos Society of 
Artists," which was organized in 1916 to set forth the 
high and definite standards of the really artistic workers 
of the Colony, by the upholding of high artistic ideals 
and the demanding of persistent and conscientious work. 
Before an artist can be considered as a future member of 
the Society he must have visited Taos three years in 
succession, have proven himself serious in the painting 
of Indian subjects, and have exhibited in reputable gal- 
leries or the New York salons. The reasonableness of 
these requirements is readily apparent. Any one might 
come to Taos, spend a month or two in desultory work, 
and return, claiming to be a member of the Taos Colony. 
And while it cannot be denied that such an one might 
produce one or a dozen of excellent pictures, it is beyond 
even the power of genius to paint that which he has not 
earnestly studied and learned to know. Scores of pic- 
tures traduce the Indian because they were painted by 
those who were ignorant of the facts and psychology of 
his life. The true artist will never willingly falsify. 
He may change, alter, re-combine, but it is all done that 
he may make the truths more alluring, more attractive ; 
never for the purpose of deceiving, cheating, or falsify- 
ing. And when even a recognized artist becomes so 



Influence of New Mexico Upon Art 377 

careless, or indifferent, that he paints, for instance, a 
picture of a blanket-weaver with the heddle intruding 
between the warp below and the row of warp the weaver 
is now introducing, it becomes necessary to protect the 
public from the work of those who have not given them- 
selves sufficient time or opportunity properly to study and 
know their subjects. 

The Society now includes the following members : 

E. Irving Couse, N. A New York. 

Bert G. Phillips Taos, N. M. 

Ernest L. Blumenschein, A. N. A. , . New York 

J. H. Sharp Taos, N. M. 

W. Herbert Dunton Taos, N. M. 

O. E. Berninghaus St. Louis 

Victor Higgins Chicago, 111. 

Walter Uf er Chicago, 111. 

Julius Rolshoven Florence, Italy. 

The original six having been in Taos from ten to twenty- 
five years, the other three elected later. 

That these men have already given a new impetus to 
American art and enriched it beyond all calculation no 
well informed critic will deny. The virility and pro- 
phecy of their work has created new roads over which 
countless thousands of followers will travel. How could 
it have been otherwise? 

When Sharp, Phillips, Sauerwin, Louis Akin, and 
Blumenschein began to send out their paintings of this 
country the critics cried out against their high key, their 
vivid colour, their tremendous vibrational quality. They 
denied their reality, their fidelity to nature, their truth. 
Yet is was in this essential quality of truth that their 
great value lay. How could their critics know, never 



378 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

having seen, or felt, never having been moved as were 
the artists? Knowledge, deep, profound, sure, is the 
essential element of criticism, and he who is ignorant 
and still dares to criticize reveals the ignorance of con- 
ceit. A reverent, receptive and awaiting attitude should 
be the spirit of all true critics when asked to pass judg- 
ment upon that with which they are unfamiliar. Once, 
while editing an Eastern magazine, there hung over my 
desk a painting of the desert, as true and real as that 
of any artist that ever lived. Technically there were 
faults in the picture, but in the essential quality of truth 
it left little to be desired. In the course of business there 
came to the office a Professor of Art in one of the East- 
ern Universities. In time our conversation drifted to 
the picture, and seeing disapproval in his eyes, I asked 
for a candid expression of his criticism. It came forth 
unhesitatingly, boldly, positively, to the effect that it was 
unreal, impossible, untrue, in its high and vivid colour- 
ing. Having wandered for twenty-five or more years 
over the desert and knowing the falsity of this destructive 
criticism I resolved to be even more daring than the critic 
— for had I not knowledge and truth on my side ? 

I asked him if he had ever been on the particular desert 
here pictured. " No ! " Had he seen any of our Ameri- 
can deserts? "No." Had he visited the African or 
Asian deserts? Again the answer came, " No." 

" Then," said I, " permit me to say that I regard your 
criticism as a piece of arrogant insolence. You confess 
you know nothing of deserts, having never seen one of 
them, yet you dare to criticize the work of a man who 
has given us as true and faithful a desert picture as any 
that was ever painted." 

There is an interesting sequel to this rather personal 
story. 



Influence of New Mexico Upon Art 379 

When the Fine Arts Palace at the San Francisco Expo- 
sition of 19 1 5 was opened, as I entered one of the rooms, 
with a friend, my eyes were immediately attracted to two 
paintings, the colour of which soared above every other 
picture in the room. They out-Heroded Herod in their 
vivid intensity of colour. Calling my friend's attention I 
exclaimed, " Desert pictures! " and walked toward them. 
They were excellent pictures, true, vivid, soulful, but, on 
looking for the signature, to my surprise, and also de- 
light, I found them signed with the name of the artistic 
critic I had ventured so forcefully to rebuke. 

As late as 1903, Louis Akin wrote of the Taos region: 
" It is simply too good to leave. It's the best stuff in 
America and has scarcely been touched." That is as true 
to-day as when he wrote it, and as to fear lest it be worked 
out, " It can never be done," says Walter Ufer, of Chi- 
cago, after four years' work there. " It is the variety, 
the depth and the breadth of it, rooted in aeons of time," 
he continues, " which explains the secret of its infinite 
charm. The portrait painter, the landscape artist, the 
limner of character, the genre and prehistoric painter, 
every school and every temperament, will here find what 
his heart desires. Such a world cannot be created in a 
day, or a year, or even a thousand years. It takes ages." 

Yet these men missed some of the picturesque and 
characteristic features of Indian, Spanish, Mexican and 
pioneer life, enjoyed by Sharp, Phillips, and the earlier 
comers. 

The Taos of those first days was a very different place 
from what it became later. It was wild and woolly of the 
wildest type. A tough gang of white cut-throats was in 
full control, gambling dens were wide open every day and 
night, Sundays and holidays ; saloons abounded and drink- 
ing was the chief occupation of the major part of the 



380 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

visitors from the country round about, whites as well as 
Mexicans, who came as often and as regularly as pos- 
sible to indulge in the wild license the place openly tole- 
rated, nay, fostered and encouraged. For, to the con- 
scienceless scoundrels who ran the town, drunkenness was 
essential to their business. How could they fleece, rob, 
strip to the skin the sheepherder, the cowboy, the farmer, 
the miner, unless they could first get him drunk? He 
must be tempted to the town; the saloon, brothel, dance- 
hall, and gambling den were made the baits with which 
to allure him. The few good men of the place were 
forced into the background unless, — or until, — their 
principles compelled them to risk their lives in their asser- 
tion. Such risks were not uncommon, and they were 
real and genuine, for shootings were frequent, murders 
rife. The life of a sheepherder or a Mexican was no 
one's concern. To go to the post-office or drug-store 
after dark was a risk. Dangers from thugs lurked at 
every corner. 

Hence there had to be some extra inducement to lead 
ordinary Americans to sojourn here for any length of 
time, and to men of culture and refinement it seemed im- 
possible. But for his art a man will bear, brave, dare, 
suffer much. Phillips was a true artist. Perhaps he was 
also a dreamer and saw into the future — when conditions 
should improve with the advance of civilization and a 
group of artists should make this their chosen center. 
Anyhow he stayed and painted, making friends with and 
studying the Indian, greeting the Mexican kindly, and 
reveling in the glory and exuberance of colour that Na- 
ture spilled before him on every hand. He established 
his family in an old Mexican adobe which his artistic taste 
transformed into the joy of his friends and the favoured 
visitor. Here he has gathered Navaho and Chimayo 



Influence of New Mexico Upon Art 381 

blankets and other Indian articles of great help to him 
in his art. 

In due time Blumenschein came back, and Sharp, and 
Couse, and Beringhaus. Sharp was fortunate enough to 
secure an old Penitente morada or church as his studio. 
This characteristic bit of New Mexico architecture he 
has sanctified by making it a temple devoted to the wor- 
ship of Beauty and Truth. Here he has painted some 
of his greatest canvases. Eleven of these — portraits of 
famous Indians — were purchased by the Government, 
and are now hanging in the Smithsonian Institution, in 
Washington. In 1902, Mrs. Phoebe Hearst bought 
eighty of his Indian portraits and other cognate pictures 
for the University of California, and added a commission 
requiring him to paint fifteen more each year for five 
years, covering all the most noted tribes. 

One of his well known pictures is " Watchful Wait- 
ing " — two Taos Indians stalking game. Here the per- 
fect draftsmanship of the artist is proven. Sharp does 
not believe that the cry of impressionism or any of the 
modern shibboleths should be held to justify careless or 
indifferent drawing. He is as faithful to the fundamen- 
tal principles in drawing, in that his human figures and 
faces are truthfully made, as he is to the peculiar bril- 
liancy and vividness of the landscape he so much enjoys. 
The field is flooded with sunlight. What consummate 
art in the perfection of both delineations — human fig- 
ures and New Mexico sunlight. The men are alive, every 
delicate touch of the brush has added to their reality, and 
the trees, the grass, the hill-slopes bathed in sunshine are 
so real that you can feel the warmth and smell the de- 
licious tree-scents. One Indian is nude save for a red 
breechclout, and he crouchingly kneels behind the trees 
with extended bow in one hand and arrow resting upon 



382 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

the taut bow-string in the other. Expectancy is in every 
muscle, and though only a partial side-view of the face is 
afforded, its tense and perfect watchfulness is apparent. 
The other figure sprawls upon the ground, head and 
shoulders slightly upraised. The body is wrapped, in 
characteristic Taos fashion, in a white blanket, the right 
shoulder and the lower part of the legs being exposed. 
How easy the pose. How restfully confident, yet how in- 
tent the watchful waiting. 

In other pictures, however. Sharp shows his deeper 
studies of Indian psychology and life. None but one 
beloved by the aborigine could ever have gained the in- 
sight into their character, or been allowed to witness the 
scenes depicted. For instance, one of his undoubted mas- 
terpieces is " The Stoic " — a large canvas presented by 
him to the Art Museum in Santa Fe. Here is the same 
conscientious work on the almost nude figure of an In- 
dian, who is developing and proving his manhood by 
dragging a number of heavy rocks, fastened with raw- 
hide thongs to sharp steel spikes that penetrate deep into 
the muscles of his shoulders. An ordinary white man 
might live a hundred years with the Indians and never 
be allowed to see such a scene. The same may be said 
of his " Indian Medicine or Black Robe." This is a 
gripping study to one who grasps its deep significance. 
An Indian is seated on a rude bench in the interior of his 
house. Before him is the feathered paraphernalia of his 
old-time " medicine," the panacea of his forefathers for 
all their ills, the " Way of the Old " which seldom failed 
to demonstrate the power of Those Above over all evil. 
On the wall above him, slightly to the right, is the crucifix 
of the Franciscan, the brown-habited friar, who, ever 
since the day of Coronado had vexed the Indian shaman 
with his insistent demand that none other should be wor- 



Influence of New Mexico Upon Art 383 

shiped save this Crucified One of Nazareth. The Indian 
realizes the dominating power of the White Man. He 
feels that the intruder possesses far more than his gods 
have given to him, and he remembers the Black Robes' 
teaching (in reality a gray robe, but he calls it black), 
that these superior possessions of power of the White 
Man are the gifts of his God. Yet his ancient faith is 
strong. He hates to forsake the religion of his fore- 
fathers. 

Who but a great artist would have seen and known 
enough to seize this moment of doubt, uncertainty, per- 
plexity, when the old is struggling with the new ; adher- 
ence to the teachings of his fathers, his pride, grappling 
to the death with the strong appeal of the religion of the 
conquering White? Pictures like this confirm Joseph 
Henry Sharp's right to the title of a master painter of 
the Indian. 

Bert G. Phillips is a close comrade of Sharp in his 
devotion to Taos and his masterly portrayal of Indian 
scenes. A good test of a picture is to live daily with it. 
For months, each time I sat at my dining-table, I fellow- 
shiped with one of Phillips' canvases. Many a time I 
found myself " brain-traveling," " wool-gathering," — 
reveling on the hill-slopes of the Taos country, wander- 
ing through the adobe-lined streets of the old Pueblo — 
instead of paying strict attention to the occurrences of 
the hour; proof sufficient of Phillips' wizardry of the 
brush. The tragedy of the " passing race " is well pic- 
tured in his " Relics of His Ancestors." Here an In- 
dian, partially nude, sits on the ground with a modern 
mattock across his knee, and just before him a stone-ax, 
flint arrow and spear points and knives and several pieces 
of ancient pottery. But it is his face that attracts atten- 
tion. Here are set forth the grief, the sorrow, the hope- 



384 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

less despair with a tinge of sullen anger that denotes the 
Indian's recognition of his speedy destruction from the 
category of races. It is this that makes the Indian so 
pathetic to the gentle and sympathizing white. He knows 
that he is doomed. 

Of the work of E. Irving Couse little need be said. 
His paintings are known everywhere, and his Taos pic- 
ture reproduced by the Santa Fe on their calendar for 
19 18 has made him known in scores of thousands of 
homes, stores, offices and shops. His " Vision of the 
Past " was awarded the Altman prize of $500 by the Na- 
tional Academy of Design in 1916, and prior to this his 
genius had been rewarded by election to membership in 
the National Academy. He has converted an old convent 
at Taos into a fascinating home and studio, where he 
gazes alike on mountains and valley. Here he paints in 
summer, while he generally winters in New York City. 

Ernest L. Blumenschein, who was one of the earliest 
resident members of the Society, has already won his 
high laurels. Recently (in 1917) he received the Chi- 
cago Art Institute cash award of $1,000, and many other 
honours have been conferred upon him. He, like the 
others named, is a master draftsman, skilled in the fun- 
damental technique of his art, depending upon no adven- 
titious aid for his success but winning it by sheer hard 
work, vision, and incontrovertible genius. His " Ora- 
tor " is a finely dramatic piece of poetic art, as well as a 
superbly executed piece of painting. There are four 
life-sized figures in the canvas, and their size adds to the 
dignity of the composition. The chief figure is that of 
an almost nude Indian, who, with calm and dignified ges- 
ture, is indicating to the others the land of their fathers, 
which lies, bathed in sunlight, below them. Two of these 
figures are in blankets and ceremonial- or feather-bonnets, 



Influence of New Mexico Upon Art 585 

while the fourth is a small nude boy who leans against 
one of his elders. We can almost hear the deep, impas- 
sioned tones of the speaker as he declaims against those 
who have despoiled his people, and our hearts instinctively 
thrill to the melancholy note in which he laments his race's 
decline. 

W. Herbert Dunton is another of the honoured mem- 
bers of the Society. For years he had been an illustrator 
of the leading American magazines. Living in the East 
he had read other men's verbal descriptions of the West, 
and had been thrilled by them to artistic expression. But, 
as was natural, the desire was ever present that he might 
have his thrills at first hand, and become a painter, rather 
than an illustrator. Remington's pictures of the West 
had always fascinated him and he had a perfect passion 
for cowboys, and pioneer life, hence it was natural that, 
footloose, he should gravitate to the West. For many 
years he rambled around in old Mexico, Oregon, Wyo- 
ming, Montana, Arizona, etc., fraternizing with cow- 
punchers, reveling in the wild excitements, dangers, pleas- 
ures and picturesque scenes of round-ups and storing his 
mind and heart with impressions and material for future 
pictures. His friendship for Blumenschein naturally di- 
rected his attention to Taos, and knowing the advantages 
to be derived from intimate association with artistic 
friends, the colony idea appealed to him. He had always 
wanted to spend his summers in the West, devoting his 
winters to the East, so here he anchored. In an old 
Mexican house he has fully established himself and is 
happy and contented in his work. It is confessedly of a 
somewhat different character from that of his associates. 
What might be termed the pioneer phases of Western life 
appeal to him tremendously. The Indian, not so much 
as an Indian, but as a part of the great Western life of 



386 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

the past. He sees the wild free days of the Indian and 
the buffalo, then the tremendous changes caused by the 
coming in of the invaders — the Spaniard, the Mexican, 
the trapper, the miner, the cowboy. He thrills, and his 
eyes sparkle as though stimulated with strong wine, when 
one speaks of the Coronado Expedition, that of Espejo, 
of Ofiate, of Lewis and Clarke, of the founding of Astoria, 
of Parkman's " Oregon Trail,'' of the old buffalo days 
on the plains. 

He rises to eloquence, even in verbal expression, when 
he tells of his first meetings with bands of cowboys, of 
half-breed trappers, of Mexican vaqueros. Here, in 
Taos, he finds genuine models for the pictures of these 
scenes he desires to paint. It is the meeting-place of the 
few remnants of the olden times. 

The adventurous life of the early West, in all its varied 
manifestations, appeals to him as affording him more than 
a life work. Let others paint Indians and Mexicans in 
their every-day life of to-day; he has chosen to depict 
the passing of past phases ; the history, the romance, the 
tragedy, the activity, the movement, the invasions, the 
immigrations of the past. What does the present-day 
dweller in Salt Lake City, in Virginia City, in Reno, in 
Truckee, in Los Angeles, in San Francisco, in Portland, 
in Seattle, all Western cities, — know of the struggles the 
founders of those cities had to pass through ere the civili- 
zation he knows was established? The slow plodding of 
the ox-team-caravan over the plains; the dread awaiting 
the night-attack of the hostile Indian; the terrors of the 
storm; the devastation of the cloudburst; the destruction 
of the floods; the blank horrors of the trackless and 
waterless desert; the dread sense of helplessness when 
the animals relied upon for transportation were stolen, 
slain by Indians, or ran away in search of water; the 



Influence of New Mexico Upon Art 387 

panic that struck the heart when a prairie fire swept every- 
thing before it; the dull hopelessness of plodding on when 
food supplies gave out; the heart-sinkings when men of 
the same party quarreled even to the death, and they must 
travel on knowing that their fellow-traveler's hands were 
dyed in his brother's blood — ah, these were some of the 
things the'pioneer had ground into his consciousness and 
these are the things Dunton loves to paint, and, further- 
more, he does it well. He served his apprenticeship in a 
good school; the discipline of the illustrator stands him 
now in good place. He sees with the artist's eye, and has 
the advantage of a keen literary training as well. The 
result is he is giving the world pictures of lasting historic 
value, pictures that will be more and more appreciated as 
we get further away from the times and conditions they 
depict. For they will make their appeal not only to the 
patriotism of the citizens of the future; there will be the 
sense of tenderness aroused, when a man, a family, re- 
calls that these were scenes in the life of their own an- 
cestors ; their grandfathers and grandmothers — perhaps 
when they were children — had endured these peculiarly 
trying experiences. The artist who preserves these ten- 
der and historic memories is a benefactor to his race and 
deserves well of it. Such an artist is W. Herbert Dunton. 

To Taos came and rejoiced in his art for awhile that 
ill-fated genius, Frank Sauerwin, painting with fervour 
and power while the flame of his life burned low and 
finally went out. His pictures will ever remain a tribute 
to the alluring personality of this land. He saw with the 
eye of a poet and master and depicted with the hand of a 
genius. 

Another of the ill-fated ones — in that he died young, 
yet helped in that he had reveled in the West — also en- 
joyed some time here, — Louis Akin, — and his Western 



388 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

pictures will ever be a joy to their appreciative possessors. 

Then came Victor Higgins and Walter Ufer. Hig- 
gins had been a student at the Chicago Institute, and also 
in Paris and Munich. When eighteen years old he first 
came into New Mexico and to Taos, but he was then un- 
formed as an artist. His training days had scarce begun. 
As soon as they were over his Paris master told him, 
" You are past the student stage now. Go out into the 
big country; go through your own land. The West and 
its people are stores of material that should have been 
felt in American art from the first," 

Curiously enough, this advice seemed to put into words 
the vague whisperings of impressions gathered during the 
first journey through the West, and crystallized a determi- 
nation to go where a half dormant love for the moun- 
tains, mesas, great plains and alluring skies had been 
urging him. 

Plis final advent at Taos was adventitious and unex- 
pected, A syndicate was formed in Chicago some years 
ago, of which Carter H. Harrison was the moving spirit. 
The object was a wise and practical combination of phil- 
anthropy and business — mostly business. It provided 
for the financing of a young and rising artist for a certain 
and specifically defined period, for which he agreed to 
paint a certain number of pictures. The scheme was 
essentially practical, Higgins had been engaged in mural 
work, though for the past two years he had turned his at- 
tention almost solely to the figure. In 1 910 he had gone 
to Europe to study, and on his return to Chicago, in 19 13, 
his work had captured two desirable prizes, one from the 
Art Institute and the other from the Municipal Art 
League. He had also won the Palette and Chisel Club's 
Gold Medal. Just at this time the Syndicate was looking 
for a new man to utilize its financial opportunity and 



Influence of New Mexico Upon Art 389 

Higgins was approached. Due consideration decided his 
acceptance. When he arrived at Taos he was more than 
delighted with his decision. The colour, atmosphere, en- 
vironments, variety, character, Indians, Mexicans, every- 
thing dazzled him. But he soon organized his impres- 
sions. Thrills of emotion, of delight, of exaltation must 
be transferred to canvas in colour, line and mass. Pic- 
tures began to crowd his brain and they soon materialized. 
Then he began to comprehend that to be a true painter of 
the Indian he must have a profound knowledge of his 
traditions, his religion, his ceremonies, his history, his 
social, domestic and tribal relationships, his industries, 
sports and recreations. The fields of Indian archaeology 
and ethnology were opened up to him, and his interest 
grew into a passion, until now he is firmly attached to 
the land, fond of the aboriginal -peoples, whom he has 
found courteous, kind and full of encouragement toward 
his highest aims. 

That his decision was a wise one is evidenced by the 
honours his work has received — the first Altman prize 
($i,ooo) at the National Academy, New York, in 1918; 
the first Logan Medal and $500, at the Chicago Exhibi- 
tion, 19 17; the second Logan Medal and the W. R. 
Hearst prize in 19 16; the Edward B. Butler purchase 
prize, Chicago, in 1915 ; and the Medal of Honour of the 
Chicago Society of Artists in 19 14. 

The attractions of Taos are further emphasized by the 
presence of Mr. and Mrs. Burt Harwood, formerly of 
Paris, and their enthusiastic acceptance of it as an ideal 
location for the artist. Practically driven from France 
by the disturbing conditions of the world war they came 
back to their former home in the United States, seeking 
a new artistic environment and atmosphere. They were 
directed to Taos and immediately fell in love with it. 



390 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

Purchasing the old and historic adobe house of Capt. 
Simpson, the place has been transformed to a refined, 
completely equipped, city dwelling. El Puehlito, or the 
Smaller Pueblo, the Indians and natives have christened 
it, and the Harvvoods have accepted the christening. 

On approaching the place an old-fashioned bell tower 
greets the visitor. In this will be shortly placed an an- 
cient Spanish church bell which the owners of El Pueblito 
have acquired. The massive gates to the entrance of the 
placita are furnished with wrought iron hinges and latches 
embellished with Indian designs. Over the main entrance 
to the house is a carved beam from the oldest church of 
Taos. There are two sculptured serpents on either side 
of a rose, and the date 1813 with Ave Maria below. 

Various parts of the place are among the most ancient 
in Taos. One building is called the " Casa del Alcalde " 
and is known to be over two hundred and fifty years old. 
On the ceiling of another part, equally ancient, was found 
written in old Spanish the priest's blessing, which trans- 
lated reads : 

" May the blessings of God the Father rest upon this 
house and all who inhabit it." 

Mr. Harwood has endeavoured to preserve everything 
that savours of the olden times, — and has given his entire 
time to the work for nearly two years. 

Nothing has been ignored, from carved sideboards and 
the like to the installation of modern electric light, water 
and sewer systems and all modern conveniences. Indeed 
it is one of the surprises of a lifetime to walk down the 
winding, dusty, adobe-lined back streets of Taos, in which 
one is transported back to sixteenth or seventeenth cen- 
tury conditions, and then suddenly to come to this made- 
over old adobe house. The exterior is scarce changed, 
except that it is " cleaned up " and everything made 



Influence of New Mexico Upon Art 391 

healthful and sanitary. In the old courtyard or plaza, 
adjoining the house, Mr. Harwood has built a commodi- 
ous studio that is worthy to be the proud possession of 
any painter. Here are priceless old Navaho, Chimayo 
and other blankets. The wood-work and furniture have 
all been made by a local workman of artistic temperament 
under Mr. Harwood's own supervision. He found a few 
fine old cupboards, chests, and the like, heirlooms of the 
oldest families of New Mexico. With open purse in 
hand and exercising that " sweet persuasiveness " that 
has won him many a model for his pictures, he gained 
possession of these desirable bits of antique wood- work, 
and everything in the house and studio has been lovingly 
and carefully patterned after them. 

Mr. and Mrs. Harwood claim that they have " fixed 
up " the old house merely for the duration of the war, but 
to the bystander it appears that they have made prepara- 
tion for a long life-time at Taos of happy activity in their 
chosen artistic careers. 

Still another of the younger members of the Colony is 
Lee F. Hirsch, formerly a student of the Cleveland 
(Ohio) School of Art, and of Douglas Volk and Kfenyon 
Cox in the New York Academy of Design. After spend- 
ing a year on the figure, he turned to landscape painting 
as his chief work, and located himself at Woodstock, in 
the Catskill Mountains. Then the desire came to him to 
go to Spain and make a thorough study of the Castilian 
types, but the war intervened and good fortune directed 
his steps to Taos instead. Here, to his delight, he finds 
all and more than he had expected to find in Spain. The 
higher types of Castilian physiognomy are not hard to 
find, and of the lower types, the Mexicans afford him in- 
numerable opportunities. It is to these he turns more 
than to the Indian — he believes they are more primitive, 



392 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

less developed in some respects than the latter, and as 
they were of the people who laid the foundations for the 
new civilization in New Mexico he finds full scope for his 
artistic talent among them. 

To me perhaps the most interesting art development as 
the result of the influence of New Mexico is found in 
the rare etchings reproduced in these pages. Unfortu- 
nately no reproduction of an etching can more than 
faintly set forth the delicacy, refinement and suggestive- 
ness of the original. 

These are the work of Mr. Wallace L. DeWolf of Chi- 
cago, one of the earliest trustees of the Art Institute, 
and a member of the Print Committee. These facts re- 
veal his artistic leanings, though he has always preferred 
to regard himself as a business man. The magnificent 
collection of Anders Zoon's fine etchings now in the In- 
stitute was made by him and is proof of his critical judg- 
ment and rare appreciation. Of late years his business 
has demanded constant visits to the Pacific Coast, and as 
he journeyed to and fro he slowly grew to appreciate the 
subtle art-appeal of the desert. From positive repug- 
nance and dislike, he graduated through various stages 
from tolerance to interest, and, at last, fell completely 
under its spell and allure. As soon as he realized this 
he began to spend days, even weeks, at a time on the 
deserts and plateaus of New Mexico, Arizona and Cali- 
fornia far from the haunts of the ordinary tourist, and 
even of Westerners. 

Before attempting the etchings, however, the delicate 
colourings, shadings, tintings and altogether unique and 
marvelous atmospheric effects of the New Mexico desert, 
together with its unusual floral growths, so appealed to 
DeWolf that he began to devote the genius which con- 
fessedly is his to depict them on canvas. 



Influence of New Mexico Upon Art 393 

Reproductions of two of his striking pictures grace 
our pages. One of these is entitled: " The Guardian of 
the Desert." In a hundred places in New Mexico just 
such a tree as this is often seen, together with the rnar- 
velous and almost unbelievable combination of colours, 
shades, tones and landscape and sky effects. Here the 
very dust of a past breeze is luminous and the mountains 
seem as though made of semi-precious stones, the bril- 
liance of their colours slightly veiled for human eyes to 
look upon. And the sky — opalescent, pearl-like, iri- 
descent, glowing, fit covering for the heaven of arch- 
angels, cherubim and seraphim, makes one feel he must 
cast ofjf his shoes, for ground overarched by such a sky 
must be holy. 

One of Mr. DeWolf's critics, Kate Terry Pearson of 
Glendale, California, herself an artist of repute and 
power, on seeing this picture went home and wrote the 
following poem. This, in itself, is another remarkable 
tribute to the power of the country over an artistic liter- 
ary mind, for it is a poem of true fire. 

THE LONE TREE IN THE DESERT 

Desert sand, and desert dust, 

Shades of azure, mountain mist: 
Blending sky and fleeting clouds 

By the fading sunset kissed. 

A monarch in its symmetry, 

One solitary, graceful tree : 
Like Wordsworth's tree, a vision clear 

In perfect, faultless harmony. 

Guarding the distance, whispering leaves 
With grace and beauty satisfy the heart; 

Itself the crowning glory and the dream 
Of desert silences a living part. 



394 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

Alas ! the change ! To-morrow's sun and dust 
Will azure mist and distant shadows sever ! 

But changeless is the Artist's mystic touch 
That paints the glory and the dream forever. 

The second of Mr. DeWolf's pictures especially ap- 
peals to me, for it is a faithful and true representation 
of " Winter on the Desert." Where else in Nature are 
such colours, in these rare and surprising combinations, 
to be found ? And yet, the desert is also the home of the 
quieter tones and shades. While one is surprised he is 
not startled as is often the case in desert colour effects. 

The immense distance, the miles on miles that actually 
confuse even the experienced traveler when he finds him- 
self for the first time upon the desert, is here portrayed as 
only a master, knowing and loving his subject, could do it. 

After demonstrating his power over these subjects in 
colour, it was but natural, — recalling his life-long devo- 
tion to etchings, — that Mr. DeWolf should endeavour to 
express his new passion for the desert through the me- 
dium of this interesting art form. Needless to add, the 
critics and his fellow craftsmen have been charmed and 
delighted with the results. For, as far as I know, or 
have been able to learn, they are the only etchings yet 
made by an American artist in this wonderfully sugges- 
tive field. 

What is it that so hypnotizes men in these desolate 
wastes? Try as he may no one can fully explain it to 
another. He may have been scorched and seared by 
desert heat, parched with desert dryness, chilled to the 
marrow by bleak desert winds, suffocated in desert sand- 
storms, buried in desert snows, half-drowned in desert 
cloudbursts and floods, almost swallowed up in desert 
quicksands, and yet the desert still calls with a strong 
insistence that will not be denied. 





Etching by Wallace L. DeWolf. 

THE " OCATILLO. 



Influence of New Mexico Upon Art 395 

Mr. DeWolf's artistic interest arose supreme over all 
these things. He forgot them as the sailor-warrior for- 
gets his sinking ship in the lust of conquest, or the martyr 
the searing of the flame in the joy of winning the Master's 
smile. He saw the elusive mirage, the glowing moun- 
tains at sunrise and sunset, and the unusually rare and 
delicate shades of desert foliage. He reveled in the vel- 
vet canopy of night, studded with gems more brilliant 
than those that enrich a king's diadem, and he laughed 
with glee at the gorgeousness of the desert flowers after 
a rain. 

In summer, while scorching in the fierce heat of the 
desert's floor, he gazed upon the snowy summits which 
pierced the bluest of blue skies in calmest serenity. In 
the fall he saw the palo verde, the greasewood, the oca- 
tillo, and the giant saguaro send forth their peculiar 
leafage and flowers, and watched the chuckawalla, the 
Gila monster, the lizard, the horned toad, and the rattle- 
snake move with incredible swiftness or glide with silent 
sinuosity in their grateful shadows. These and a score 
of other pictures rushed in kaleidoscopic variation before 
his eyes. The most elusive he failed to catch, but some of 
them his etching tool mastered and graved. Some of 
these etchings grace these pages. Opposite page 344 is 
one entitled, " Palo Verde " — the tree of the green sticks. 
Who that has seen this strange desert tree creature does 
not recall the first time his eyes fell upon it? Leafless, 
apparently, it is utterly unlike anything before seen. It 
seems as if the desert's heat had so scorched its leaves that 
they had rolled themselves up in order to reduce the sur- 
face upon which the burning rays of the sun might be 
felt. Yet when it blooms it is one of the most gorgeous 
floral sights the eye of mortal man ever gazed upon, be- 
coming one dazzling mass of brilliant yellow, just as if 



396 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

a gold mist had surrounded this umbrageous standard of 
a tender green shade. The massive, columnar structure 
of the giant saguaro reveals itself through and above its 
peculiar leafage, while the far-away mountains clearly 
indicate they belong to the same school of desert and un- 
tamed things. 

Even more rarely delicate is " The Creosote Bush." 
The dominating and forceful personality of the saguaro 
commands attention, for it is seen through the smaller 
and more refined leaves of the creosote. These leaves are 
of a rich polished olive-green. They look as if they were 
varnished, and the botanists tell us they are so especially 
designed, or have so evolved, that they can withstand the 
intensest heat. The flowers are a delicate yellow, coming 
out of a green calyx, and the seed-pods are separated 
with tufts like tiny bunches of cotton. The fragile beauty 
of the creosote is vividly suggested in Mr. DeWolf's 
etching, and the marked difference between it and the 
saguaro is strongly emphasized. The soft, airy nothing- 
ness of the foothills and superposed peaks is also set forth 
with masterly skill, for there are times when it is hard 
to believe that these mountains are composed of solid 
rock, so fairy-like is their appearance. This etching is 
not among those reproduced here. 

In " The Ocatillo," opposite page 394, we have an en- 
tirely different class of desert verdure. While this is 
commonly spoken of as a cactus it is, in reality, a desert 
acacia. Branching out of the earth from a common root, 
it appears like a group of crooked sticks covered with 
thorns, and, after a rain, with delicately green leaves. 
The etching is startlingly realistic, far more so than any 
photograph I have ever seen. Its strong silhouette effect 
is exactly as one's eye often sees it, and the poetry of its 
surroundings is not overlooked. The mamillaria cactus, 




THE SNOWY UANGE. 



THREE ETCHINGS BY WALLACE L. DEWOLF 



Influence of New Mexico Upon Art 397 

the opuntias and the shrinking prickly giHas are deHcately 
indicated and the whole picture is one of charm and de- 
light to him who has learned to love these gnarled and 
prickly sons of the desert's soil. 

Well has the artist entitled his etching, opposite this 
page, " The Sentinels of the Desert." Still, often solitary 
and alone, always silent, — save when fierce winds blow 
through the fluted columns, or they are made vocal with 
the owls, cactus wrens and other birds that find shelter 
within their apparently forbidding, but, in reality, friendly 
arms, — they suggest the soldier, under stern command, 
standing with shouldered arms, carefully watching for 
the oncoming of any foe. To come upon these giant 
saguaros unexpectedly is to give oneself a startling sur- 
prise. Sometimes they suggest other things than senti- 
nels. They are giant monsters of unusual form, waiting 
to spring upon intruding and unsuspecting man. Espe- 
cially in the night-time is this sentinel and monster idea 
likely to seize the unfamiliar desert traveler. 

Of an entirely different type of picture is another op- 
posite this page. Here the artist gives us the effect pro- 
duced upon him of a mirage, — a bold and daring thing to 
attempt, — to picture that which merely exists as a figment 
of the imagination, yet it seems real. The water of a 
mirage is as perfect, often more so to the eye, as the 
real liquid of the lakes and springs. The mystic appear- 
ance of the heavens, of the mountains, and of the floor of 
the desert, however, as they present themselves at the 
time of the mirage prepares one to see the false water 
so graphically suggested in the etching. In this picture 
Mr. DeWolf has scored an artistic triumph, one that I 
have never known attempted before. 

Still giving us another mood of the desert, we are 
shown in the third etching opposite this page, " The 



398 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

Snowy Range." Any one who has ridden from the rail- 
way across the mesa to Taos, in the late fall or early 
spring, will see here his memories faithfully and delight- 
fully portrayed. How the pure white of the snow con- 
trasts the vivid greens of the cedars and pines of the lower 
levels, the grays, olives and reds of the rocks, and the 
great patches of plowed earth of the valleys! And while 
the etcher gives us none of the colour that exists, his art 
can be so perfect that the memory — the imagination — 
supplies that which the eye cannot see. 

Another etching in the series is that of " The Mes- 
quite," — Prospis glandulosa, — a genuine desert tree, 
that Indians and whites alike regard with favour. It is 
one of the most characteristic trees of the arid country 
and while it is occasionally seen as large in New Mexico 
as the etching suggests, it is more often found as a tall 
shrub. The rich green leaves afford a grateful change to 
the traveler whose eyes long for relief from the gray 
tones that dazzle one in the ruddy sun. The flowers fur- 
nish the best of nectar to the honeybees; and the leaves 
and bean-like pods are eaten with eagerness by animals, 
wild and domestic. The large roots, thickened trunks 
and branches make the best kind of fuel. The Indian 
says it is a special gift of the gods to him. In its leaves 
and branches he finds cooling shelter for his temporary 
home ; from its beans he obtains food for his horse, burro 
or cattle and also for himself, for he grinds them into 
meal of which he makes mush, bread, sugar, and a re- 
freshing drink, and from its wood he gains his fuel. 

Somehow most of these qualities are suggested in the 
etching. One can feel its cooling shade, and there is an 
inviting, almost maternal quality in its outspreading 
branches, that the artist must have felt ere he so perfectly 
portrayed it. 



The Pepper Stringers. 

From a Paiutiny made expressly for the author by Lucille JouUin. 



Influence of New Mexico Upon Art 399 

In the etching entitled " Desert Flora," Mr. DeWolf 
gives a realistic picture of desert growths that contains 
far more than appears at a casual glance. Towering 
above all else is the giant saguaro ; while partially hiding 
it is the ocatillo, with its strong suggestion of thorniness 
and general hostility. Below are the flat-leaved opuntias, 
while to the left, there are the delicate and graceful creo- 
sote bush and more ocatillo, with tufts of grass at their 
roots. These clearly indicate the drifting white sand, 
small piles of which are caught at the bases of all the 
plants. How interesting a study this forbidding looking 
flora soon becomes, when one learns the individualistic 
characteristics of each variety ! 

Taking these etchings as a whole, we are most grateful 
to Mr. DeWolf for his attempt, and it will be interesting 
to watch their influence upon other artists in the same 
field. 

Lucille Joullin's three paintings are joyous and exuber- 
ant expressions of her love for and devotion to New 
Mexico. Years ago, when her husband was enamoured 
of the country, the desert flora, and particularly the In- 
dians, she spent much time with him traveling over the 
wide spaces of New Mexico and associating in most 
primitive simplicity with their Indian friends. The love 
for country and people was then absorbed, almost uncon- 
sciously, for when she herself took up the brush and 
palette again, at her husband's death, one of her oft- 
spoken longings was to get back to New Mexico and paint 
Indians. 

I found her, in 191 6, domiciled with a Pueblo Indian 
widow and her son, at Isleta, happy and buoyant to be 
at the work she loved. Pueblo men, women and children 
soon showed their friendliness for her by posing and in- 
viting her to their homes and ceremonies. The " Pepper 



400 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

Stringers " were her neighbours, and one glance of them 
at work was enough to arouse the artistic instinct. The 
vivid red of the peppers, the grayish-brown background 
of the wall, the pure blue sky above, the play of light 
and shade on face and costume of the workers, all ap- 
pealed alike for portrayal. In her " Isleta Funeral Pro- 
cession " she gives us a picture of definite historic value; 
of the transitional period through which the Indians are 
now passing. Here are evidences of their ancient rites 
and ceremonies, modified by the influence of the Catholic 
Church. To the knowing, the water-ollas upon the heads 
of the mourners are as significant of Indian thought as 
the processional cross is of CatJwUc thought. 

In her " Maiden at the Spring," Mrs. Joullin has given 
us a tender and beautiful touch of the feminine side of 
Indian life. The girls are brought up from their earliest 
years to be the water-carriers — the life-bringers — of 
their race. The beauty, grace, sweet purity, and inno- 
cence, combined with the native dignity that this high 
mission confers upon its bearers, might well teach a won- 
derful lesson to the useless and frivolous of the maidens 
of the white race. 

In her San Francisco studio Mrs. Joullin has many 
New Mexico studies, sketches and finished pictures, and 
happy are those who have placed upon their home walls, 
the vivid expressions of her love for this " Land of High 
Colours and High Places." 

Of equal interest and importance with Mrs. Joullin's 
" Isleta Funeral " is Eva Almond Withrow's " Thanks- 
giving Dance at Acoma." In this ceremony there is the 
same combination of pure Indian and Catholic thought 
and expression. The dance, however, is the essentially 
aboriginal part. The intense earnestness, the fervour, 
the fanatic zeal that leads the young men to their most 



Influence of New Mexico Upon Art 401 

exhaustive endeavours are clearly depicted upon the faces 
of the dancers, and tlie whole effect of terraced-houses, 
spectators, dancers and feeling is truthfully and artistic- 
ally rendered. 

Of the two paintings of Carlos Vierra, — one of the 
New Art Museum of Santa Fe, and the other of the old 
Franciscan Mission of Zia, — it may be said that they 
are fine, artistic expressions of his almost passionate and 
reverent devotion to the native architecture of New Mex- 
ico. Reference to the chapter devoted to this subject will 
show that he is the principal exponent of this fascinating 
theme. 

The painting by William Lees Judson, Dean of the 
Fine Arts Department of the University of Southern 
California, representing the " Easter Procession of the 
Penitentes," is a picture of peculiar value and worth. It 
is the first attempt, as far as I am aware, truthfully to 
depict on canvas this amazing spectacle of fanatic devo- 
tion to a high conception. In the chapter upon the sub- 
ject I have tried to express the deep feelings of emotion 
with which one witnesses this strange and almost unbe- 
lievable ceremonial, and Dr. Judson has wonderfully 
caught its profoundest spirit, and transferred it to his 
canvas. This is certain to become a memorable and fa- 
mous picture. 

While in this chapter I have dwelt exclusively upon the 
" Taos School of Artists," and the paintings, etc., of this 
volume, it must not be deemed that I have given a com- 
plete survey of the artistic field of New Mexico. An 
equally interesting and comprehensive chapter might well 
be written upon the work of the Santa Fe artists and, 
indeed, a whole volume of this size would be inadequate 
to sing their well-deserved praises. Many of these art- 
ists have taken up more or less permanent residence in 



402 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

the land, and a score of others return with regularity 
to renew their impressions and add to their canvases. 
Albuquerque, in time, will have its art colony, unless by 
its failure to catch the artistic drift, and anchor it in the 
growing city, it settles in the very precincts of the old 
church on the mesa heights of Acoma. 

Suffice it to say that the world will hear more and more, 
as the years pass, of the growing influence upon art and 
artists of this Sunshine Land of New Mexico. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

ANCIENT AND MODERN METHODS OF SEEING 
NEW MEXICO 

Were my first experiences of travel in New Mexico 
written in detail they would lead the reader to assume 
that I must have been here a century or more ago, save 
for the presence of the railway. I have ridden scores of 
miles on horse-, mule-, or burro-back ; and hundreds of 
miles in rude springless lumber and other wagons, jolt- 
ing, jarring, shaking over the rudest kind of roads. On 
one occasion I made a trip, seated on the rear axle of a 
lumber wagon, on which a few sacks of grain had been 
tied, with a lady missionary by my side. As we went up 
the steep and rocky mountains and down the sliding can- 
yons, over roads that were rutted, or rocky, or washed 
out, there was nothing for it but to cling together, in 
mutual endeavour to keep from slipping off, fore and aft, 
or being thrown into the wheels. I met the lady again a 
short time ago. She is still a resident of New Mexico, 
but is now the mother of three sturdy sons, one of them 
with Uncle Sam's soldiers at Camp Cody. She laughed 
heartily as I recalled the " clinging '' experiences we had 
on that occasion. I have ridden in ox-carts, burro-carts, 
army-ambulances, old-fashioned stage-coaches, and mod- 
ern buggies, with Mormons, Indians, Mexicans, Catholic 
priests, Protestant missionaries, and Indian shamans. 
One of these experiences is related in the chapter entitled 
" My Adventures in Zuni," wherein my companion and I 
— neither of us expert horsemen — drove two fiery and 

403 



404 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

untamed broncos, directly from the range, and, neces- 
sarily, had a lively and exciting time. 

Of an entirely different character was my solitary drive 
from Fruitland to the Chaco Canyon ruins. I had driven 
across the Navaho reservation, from northwestern Ari- 
zona, with a Mormon friend in his freight wagon. We 
had camped at night under the stars, rolled up in our 
blankets, with our feet to the camp-fire, and were gen- 
erally under way again, having breakfasted, fed and har- 
nessed our six horses, before three a. m. each morning. 
Then, after a few days' rest with friends, and an inter- 
esting visit to the Navaho Indian school at Shiprock, I 
found that my friend Charlie Algert had left word — he 
had been called East — that I might take his horse and 
buggy if I wished to risk going alone, across country, to 
Chaco Canyon. Did I ? It was just what I was aching 
to do. 

And I ached as I did it. For it was winter time, — 
December or January, I think, — and the nights were bit- 
terly cold, the thermometer often going below zero. 
That was a lonely trip, for I would drive all day and 
seldom see a soul, and he would be a sheep-herding 
Navaho. I did meet one interesting character, however; 
a man on foot, who was of the intelligent and purposeful 
" hobo " type. He was a Walt- Whitman-lover who knew 
the joy of the " open road." With grub-sack, canteen, 
and note-book he seemed quite contented. It was his 
way of gaining health and " seeing the country." He 
read me from his notes of his sight-seeing of little known 
places in Colorado, Utah, and Arizona, of Cliff-Dwellings, 
Petrified Forest, Grand Canyon, Natural Bridges, Pic- 
tured Rocks, etc., and now he was going to visit the Chaco 
ruins, and the pueblos of Zuni, Acoma, and the Rio 
Grande. I was on my way back from Chaco. Each 



Methods of Seeing New Mexico 405 

night I had camped, alone, in the open. On that high 
plateau, with wind blowing, the camp-fire made of sage- 
brush was not only comforting but was all that saved me 
from freezing to death. For the thermometer generally 
went down to about 25 degrees Fahr. below zero, some- 
time during the night. My sturdy horse, though well 
blanketed and picketed as near the fire as I could get him, 
was eager to get his breakfast and start off at a good 
wanning pace each morning. One night we stopped at 
an Indian trading post. The trader invited me to roll 
out my blankets inside the store, which I did, but, when 
I saw his greasy and dirty frying pans, his unwashed 
hands making biscuits, and his unscoured tin cups set out 
for coffee, I really wished for the sweet purity of the 
freezing open. I was sorry I had not stuck to my camp- 
ing-out. 

I might tell of the companionable trips with such men 
as my friend William McGuinnes, of lunches and evening 
meals in the open by the side of the Rio Grande, or under 
the pines of the Taos mountains ; or of a jaunt I took with 
Matthew Howell into the heart of the Navaho Country. 
Who could ever forget that experience? We were driv- 
ing from St. Michaels to Ganado. The day was bright 
and clear, and our hearts were bright and our eyes were 
clear, for we were seeing sights, enjoying the delightfully 
bracing air of the plateau, and of the pines, pinions and 
cedars. We had stopped for lunch under the trees, and 
now, as evening drew near, were on the home stretch — 
a straight piece of road, fenced with barbed wire on 
either side — to Ganado. In five minutes, or less, we 
should be in the hospitable home of Lorenzo Hubbell, 
that genial and royal host, at whose table every reputable 
traveler of the past thirty years has been made welcome. 
Suddenly a tug slipped off the nigh single-tree. Lashing 



406 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

the legs and side of the bronco it so startled him that he 
made a leap forward. This unslipped the neck yoke from 
the pole, and, instantly, El diahlo was to pay. Imagine 
our situation! One horse with a tug loose, the pole down 
on the ground, driving into the road and striking every 
rock or slight elevation, and in danger of being snapped 
in two every moment, both horses striving and struggling 
to run away. For, as Matthew drew back on the lines, — 
there being no neck-yoke on the pole to tighten up the 
slack, — he pulled the swiftly moving vehicle on to their 
heels. This made them frantic. They kicked and 
plunged and could not be controlled. Their irregular 
traction on the single-trees swung the pole to and fro, 
and there we were, swaying first to one side of the road, 
then to the other, in a most drunken and irresponsible 
dance. Yes, dance it was ; for each time the end of the 
pole struck the earth, it penetrated the ground and gave 
the wagon a jerk that nearly threw us off the seat. Then, 
suddenly, the pole swerved to the left, and we were headed 
direct for the barbed-wire fence. In view of barbed 
wire I invariably think quickly, for I have had one or 
two rather narrow escapes from this tearing and lacerat- 
ing entanglement. I decided to jump. My subconscious 
brain seconded the motion, and I leaped, fortunately 
clearing the wagon and plunging horses. As I did not 
fall I was able to rush to the head of the partially loose 
horse and hang on to him, while, simultaneously, an 
Indian who had observed our plight and run out to aid 
us, grabbed the other. In less time than it takes to write 
it, the harness was readjusted, the broncos quieted down, 
and I had taken my seat, and we drove to the store as 
gently as though there had been no such mad excitement as 
I have tried to describe. 

At Ganado I said Adieu! to Howell and when next I 



Methods of Seeing New Mexico 407 

drove it was with a Navaho and his ponies. We went up 
into the Tunicha mountains, and then to Chin Lee, and 
a day or two later another Navaho went up the glorious 
Canyon de Chelly with me, where we slept on the sand- 
stone rocks, and ate our meals together, and climbed to 
the Cliff-dwellings hidden in the majestic walls of that 
stupendous canyon. 

These are but samples of stories of typical trips I have 
been making in New Mexico for over thirty years. 

But now a change comes over the scene. Those '* an- 
cient-day " methods are now followed only by the people 
of ancient mind. The mentally alert, the progressive, 
have kept abreast of the times. The automobile now 
dashes over roads that used to know nothing swifter than 
the Indian runner. Modern system and efficiency have 
taken the place of the " happy-go-lucky " chance methods 
of the past. All one has to do is to wire to the manager 
of the Rocky Mountain Camp at Santa Fe, tell him where 
you want to go, and how, and the number of your party, 
and on your arrival everything will be ready for you. 

Personally I feel there is no way equal to that of going 
horseback, with pack- and camp-equipment. This re- 
quires more time, but it is time well spent, for it allows 
the country to " seep " into one's mentality as well as his 
physical being. It is good to bathe in a pure atmosphere 
of germ-free and sun-laden air, but it is better to bathe 
mentally in the vastness, power, silence, and serenity of 
this remarkable country. Necessarily the essential physi- 
cal conditions for such a trip are good saddle- and pack- 
animals, a guide who knows the country with its water- 
holes and best stopping places, as well as its scenic and 
romantic allurements, who can follow dim mountain-, 
desert-, and canyon-trails, who knows how to ride, care 
for his stock, " throw the diamond " — the hitch that 



408 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

makes his pack secure — cook and serve the food in 
palatable style, and, besides all these simple things, can 
keep the traveler cheerful, happy and encouraged when 
he is weary and hungry before he reaches the evening 
camping-place. Such men are not to be found every- 
where, but the Rocky Mountain Camp Company has 
seemed to secure quite a number of them. Hence, hav- 
ing myself tested their capacity and satisfied myself of 
their fine quality I am glad to pass on the good word to 
my readers. As to where they will take travelers, the one 
word " anywhere " is a sufficient answer, but for those 
who would like more detailed information it can be se- 
cured by writing direct to the Company at Santa Fe or to 
the General Passenger Agent of the Santa Fe railway 
either in Chicago, Illinois ; Albuquerque, New Mexico ; 
Topeka, Kansas; Los Angeles, California; or San Fran- 
cisco, California. 

While the railway officials have nothing whatever to 
do with the enterprise of this company, they feel as I do, 
viz., that it is a pleasure to further the work of such 
efficient men who are helping, so delightfully, to make 
this wonderful country better known. 



CHAPTER XXV 

NEW MEXICO AS THE NATION'S PLAYGROUND 

It is large enough — there is no question about that. 
See the figures of its vastness quoted elsewhere. It has 
variety enough to meet all tastes, variety in climates, alti- 
tudes, geographical conditions and sources of interest. 
The chapters on mountains and flora tell of its versatility 
and diversity of climate. Yet this must not be under- 
stood as an acrobatic diversity : that is, a climate that is 
always turning somersaults upon itself. There is noth- 
ing fickle in New Mexico climate. Its diversity depends 
largely upon its topographic variations. You are not 
sweltering to-day and freezing to-morrow in the same 
location. To get change you must travel, but when, and 
as, you travel you may be accommodated to anything you 
want. 

In altitudes New Mexico is equally varied. One may 
like to be in the lower valleys at elevations near to sea 
level, or he may enjoy the vast plateaus at 4,000, 5,000 
feet general elevation, or the foothills or slopes of the 
giant mountains that tower up to over 10,000 feet, whose 
summits are equally accessible to him. 

Consequently if he love desert the visitor or home- 
seeker may have all he seeks of it; if he wants to be on 
the arable land by the side of a great river, he can equally 
be accommodated; or if he wants to live on mesa heights, 
in splendid isolations, in lava fields, in extinct volcanoes, 
in giant forests, or in the solitude of mountain heights, 
each and all of his wishes are provided for. 

409 



410 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

As for sources of interest the chapters of the foregoing 
pages have been written to no avail if they have not dem- 
onstrated what one may enjoy in these regards. What 
more does the curious American want than Pueblo In- 
dians of a score of towns, nomad Apaches, Mexicans with 
their individualistic habits and customs, including the 
unbelievable Penitentes, cowboys, forest rangers, sheep 
herders' camps, artist colonies, sleepy American settle- 
ments, dead and alive mining camps, some of the most 
active and pushing of American cities, great irrigation 
systems, the historic Inscription Rock, quaint, ancient 
Santa Fe, the old Franciscan Missions, the blanket-mak- 
ing Navahos and Chimayos, the pottery-, silver-ware and 
basket-making Indians, the cliff-dwellings, the Mormons, 
the wonderful rock-carvings, the coal fields? There 
surely is enough to interest the really intelligent and wide- 
awake American. 

The roads of the State are not yet in as good condition 
as in the older, more populous and more wealthy States. 
It would be unreasonable to expect that they should be. 
But the people are growingly alert to this great need and 
are stretching every nerve to put in transcontinental high- 
ways and roads that lead to the most scenic and historic 
regions. A few years will make a marked improvement 
in this regard. The motorist should note the climatic and 
topographic differences between the northern and south- 
ern routes in winter and summer. Go to the south in 
winter. The mountain passes are lower, and the climate 
more hospitable. In the summer, however, change the 
route. The snow has gone, the roads are of natural 
gravel for scores of miles, and the cool breezes from the 
snowfields of the near-by mountains grateful and sooth- 
ing. 

Florence Merriam Bailey, the well-known ornithologist, 



New Mexico as tne Nation^s Playground 411 

gives some delightful pictures of New Mexico's attrac- 
tions in her various contributions to the bird magazines, 
and it is a great regret that one cannot quote some of 
them. 

Let one wander where he will in New Mexico he will 
find something unique in its interest and allurement. 
The Taos region is full of fascination. Santa Fe is the 
center of a world of splendidly varied attractions ; Jemez 
has its hot springs; Pecos, its ruins of the old church, 
a century and a half older than any of the Missions of 
California; Acoma is sui generis — nothing just like it in 
the world ; Albuquerque has its Sandia Mountains, as well 
as its quaint Mexican villages, and its close proximity to 
some of the historic antiquities of the American world; 
all a-down the course of the Rio Grande are fascinations 
in recent irrigation development ; at Silver City and there- 
abouts are mines and mountains galore, and near by is 
Fort Bayard, one of the U. S. Government Sanitariums — 
but these are merely hints of the scores of places that 
might be, and ought to be named, would space permit. 

There is one place, however, in southern New Mexico, 
that is so essentially a Western pleasure spot, that it is 
deserving of especial mention. This is Cloudcroft, lo- 
cated at 9,000 feet, nearly 2,500 feet higher than the sum- 
mit of the highest mountain in the whole eastern and 
middle-western, northern and southern States, east of the 
Rockies, viz., Mt. Washington, New Hampshire. It is 
on one of the crests of the Sacramento range, overlooking 
the Tularosa Valley, in which are located the famous 
" White Sands." 

Here, surrounded by giant pines with willowy moun- 
tain crests and folds leading the eye down to an expan- 
sive valley panorama, companioning the very stars of the 
peerless New Mexico sky, " The Lodge " is located, a 



412 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

hundred thousand dollar hotel, above the clouds, and a 
summer colony establishes itself each year. Imagine any 
of the famous resort hotels of the East perched up at an 
altitude of 9,000 feet, with the most elevated golf links 
in the world, with tennis courts, bowling alleys, as well as 
horseback-riding, mountain-climbing and the like. There 
is quite a little settlement in summer, scores of people 
owning their own cottages and sending their families up 
for three or four months. There are several hotels, 
stores, etc., where all supplies and camping-outfits may 
be secured, so that the traveler of every kind is well pro- 
vided for. Here, too, is located the Baby Sanitarium, 
where infants are cared for by the El Paso Medical So- 
ciety, under the auspices of the Woman's Equal Suffrage 
League. This is a modernly equipped institution; the 
sun and pine-laden air, combined with the pure atmos- 
phere wafted up from Nature's great laboratories beneath, 
aided by the medical care of the physicians and the tender 
attention of the nurses working wonders upon sickly and 
frail infants. Thousands of lives have undoubtedly been 
saved by a few months' sojourn here at the right time. 
Some one has well said. 

Nature and man worked together to make Cloudcroft what it is — 
a summer play-ground, a summer Paradise — combining all modern 
comforts, yet keeping close to Nature. Nature provided high vaulted 
skies, bright sunshine, cool breezes, fields of flowers and a great 
pine forest sheltering birds of many songs. Man built a railroad up 
the mountains, made roads and bridle-paths through the forest, 
built the " Lodge " and pavilion and laid out pleasure grounds for 
the summer colony. 

Cloudcroft is 26 miles from Alamogordo, one of the 
prominent towns on the main line of the El Paso and 
Southwestern System. For centuries the Mescalero 
Apache Indians every year used to come across the plains, 




w 
< 

a 



New Mexico as the Nation^s Playground 413 

bringing whatever sick of men, women and children they 
had, climbing their rude trails to the pine groves of what 
is now known as Cloudcroft. Here, they declared, 
" Those Above " especially cooled the atmosphere, dis- 
tilled the virtue from the pine and other health-giving 
trees, shrubs, and flowers, and caused new life and vigour 
to be given to all who were sick. It was a place especially 
blessed, a spot where the " Shadow People " themselves 
came and walked upon the earth. Hence it was estab- 
lished as a health and pleasure resort long before the white 
man's foot invaded the continent, centuries before Coro- 
nado's band wearily plodded across New Mexico in search 
of the " Seven Cities of Cibola." 

When civilization began to invade the valleys, and tim- 
ber was needed from the mountains to build towns, cities 
and villages for white men, a railroad was built for log- 
ging purposes and the pine trees were cut and hauled to 
Alamogordo to the mills. This railroad, 26 miles from 
Alamogordo to Cloudcroft, is pronounced a wonderful 
feat of engineering skill, being a standard gauge road 
climbing over a mile in height, using numerous switch- 
backs, double reverse curves and bridges in the ascent. 

Now, during the season, which lasts from June i to 
September 30th, daily passenger trains ply between Cloud- 
croft and El Paso, 112 miles away, so that it is the chosen 
resort not only of a large part of New Mexico, but of the 
residents of this progressive and bustling Texas city. 

At a little lower elevation than Cloudcroft are two other 
resorts, equally beautiful in surroundings. Mountain Park 
and High Rolls, and the three resorts combined offer a 
variety as delightful as they are unique and elevated. 
Every summer visitor to the far West would find it to his 
delight and profit to stop over for a few days, a week, or 
a month at these rarely beautiful spots. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

EDUCATION IN NEW MEXICO 

In the early days of New Mexico history it cannot be 
said that education was popular with the masses of the 
people, or with the better classes for the people. With- 
out indulging in any crimination it cannot be denied that 
the ordinary Mexican peon was not educated, nor was 
there much if any attempt made, on the part of his reli- 
gious, political or social superiors, to give him an educa- 
tion. Whether that were a good or a bad policy I do not 
care to argue. It is sufficient to affirm that it is now the 
practice of every State in the Union to demand a certain 
amount of education for all of its citizens — potential or 
actual. The great war has emphasized the need for this, 
and there is little doubt but that federal, as well as state, 
requirements will be constantly enlarged, until illiteracy 
is absolutely banished, and every citizen speaks, reads 
and writes the English language. While, personally, I 
do not care to enter into the argument as to the " why " of 
the ignorance and illiteracy that exist even to-day in New 
Mexico, it will be interesting to the general reader to 
peruse a portion of a paper read by an educational official 
of the State at the State Teachers' Institute, as recently 
as 19 1 7. I quote from the original manuscript used on 
that occasion : 

In order to arrive at a better understanding concerning illiteracy 
in New Mexico, it will be necessary to revert to our early history, 
when, until a short time ago there existed two classes of people, the 
rich, powerful and influential, and the poor, weak and helpless. 

414 



Education in New Mexico 415 

The former ruled with an iron hand and practised slavery in various 
degrees, entering into agreements with the latter, whereby their 
children were parceled out for a number of years to be used in the 
herding of sheep, goats, cattle, and the performance of other menial 
services. A lordship existed to the extent that one class was kept at 
the mercy of the other, which gradually grew into the custom of the 
poor serving the wealthier peoples. For years no public schools ex- 
isted, and in later years when the public school system was estab- 
lished, it was a mere farce almost to the time New Mexico became a 
State. The public schools, especially in the remote rural communi- 
ties, were such in name only. Lack of sufficient revenue for school 
purposes resulted in inefficiency and incompetency in whatever school 
work was undertaken. Poor and inappropriate school houses, built 
for dancing purposes and loaned or rented to the districts to hold 
school in; unskilled and unprepared teachers in charge of the so- 
called schools ; short terms, all these, resulted in the masses being 
very poorly served. We have suffered and are suffering to a great 
extent from the traditions and customs handed down from our fore- 
fathers, who, if they understood equality did not apparently con- 
sider it in connection with the rights and privileges due their chil- 
dren. 

In 1835 Colonel Albino Perez was sent by the officials 
in Mexico to take charge of the departmental affairs of 
New Mexico. The appointment seems to have been un- 
fortunate from a political sense, for it, doubtless, was the 
moving cause of the revolution of 1837-8. Yet Gover- 
nor Perez was a man of high ideals and would have in- 
augurated a plan of public education had the revolutionists 
not cut off his head. In the Santa Fe Archives is the 
proclamation and plan for public instruction in the city 
of Santa Fe made by the Governor. 

It is a proclamation that showed his advanced ideas on 
education and would have worked a mental revolution in 
Santa Fe and New Mexico had it been carried out. 

Unfortunately a revolution effectually quieted the hand 
that wrote this first charter of education for New Mexico. 
Then came a greater upheaval, in the seizing of the Terri- 
tory by the United States. It might be thought that 



416 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

public education would have received a great impetus 
under our new and progressive government, but such was 
not the case. New Mexico, ever since the advent of the 
Spaniards, has been the warring ground of the Indians. 
If the Pueblos were quiet, the Apaches and Navahos were 
on the warpath. And while, in a comparatively short 
time, the greater depredations of the Indians were 
checked, it was utterly impossible to exercise a restraining 
hand in the outlying or country districts. Here a hand- 
ful of renegades could plunder, burn and terrorize even 
though they did not kill, and it took several decades to 
make life and property reasonably safe everywhere. 

Then, when safety was assured there were no build- 
ings, teachers, or money in the treasury for educational 
purposes. Indeed, everything was lacking except poten- 
tial pupils, and the parents of these had no desire that 
their children should be educated. 

Even in the cities and towns there were no public 
schools. The Catholic church has always been opposed 
to public schools — is to-day — believing it better that 
children should have no education, than that they be edu- 
cated without a knowledge of religion — as they under- 
stand and teach it. Hence, though they had no funds 
with which to inaugurate their own system of parochial 
schools, they strenuously opposed all suggestions and 
movements for the establishment of common or public 
schools. Indeed, in the early days, many of the Mexican 
priests were themselves so illiterate and degraded that 
Bishop Lamy suspended them from their holy office. 
These false pastors not only kept their people in the 
densest ignorance, but demanded excessive and exorbitant 
fees for marriages, baptisms and burials, so much so 
that many couples lived together without marriage in 
open defiance of church and territorial law, pleading 



Education in New Mexico 417 

that they could not afford to pay the fees demanded. 
Bishop Lamy's vicar general, Father Machebeuf, thus 
stated the matter in a letter : 

The lack of instruction and other helps has left religion in a de- 
plorable condition in New Mexico. Its practice is almost entirely 
lost, and there remains little but the exterior shell. With such igno- 
rance the consequent corruption can easily be imagined, and all the 
immorality that must flow from it. 

As early as possible Bishop Lamy established Catholic 
day and boarding schools in Santa Fe. The American 
newcomers, in the meantime, while strongly in favour of 
public schools, had no power to start them contrary to the 
popular will, unless it were done as a gift to the people by 
some missionary society. And there were many influen- 
tial Spaniards and Mexicans who joined with the Catho- 
lics, even when they themselves were not of that faith, 
in opposing public education of the common people. 

Davis, in his El Gringo, thus writes of the condition 
of education in the territory in 1856 and prior to that 
time: 

The standard of education in New Mexico is at a very low ebb, 
and there is a larger number of persons who cannot read and write 
than in any other Territory in the Union. The census of 1850 shows 
a population of 61,547 inhabitants, of whom 25,089 are returned as 
being unable to read and write. I feel confident that this ratio is 
too low, and that the number may safely be set down at one half 
the whole population who cannot read their catechisms and write 
their names. The number attending school is given as 460, which is 
about one scholar to every one hundred and twenty-five inhabitants. 
This exhibits a fearful amount of ignorance among the people, and 
is enough to make us question the propriety of intrusting them with 
the power to make their own laws. 

According to an address delivered in Santa Fe, in 19 14, 
by Secretary of State Antonio Lucero, there were some 
of the Spanish-speaking people who were as eager that 



418 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

their children should be educated as were the people of 
New England. He wrote from his own experience. 

One good result to the cause of education that followed 
the coming of the Americans was that the various denomi- 
nations of the Christian church sent pastors and teachers 
into the territory, and denominational schools for Mexi- 
can children were established, that of the Baptists in Santa 
Fe, beginning as early as 1849. 

Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Congre- 
gationalists all established Mission Schools, and the first 
University of New Mexico was incorporated under the 
auspices of the last named, in Santa Fe, May 11, 1881. 
Its first preparatory school was opened September 11, 
1 88 1, and the corner-stone of Whitin Hall, its first perma- 
nent building, was laid October 21, 1882, "in the name 
of Christian Education, in behalf of intellectual progress 
and improvement, in the hope and trust that it will be a 
stronghold of intelligence and morality, and a bulwark 
against ignorance and vice." This Hall was completed 
October, 1887, and was mainly the gift of the family of 
John C. Whitin, of Massachusetts. 

In 1888 a State University was established at Albu- 
querque, a School of Mines at Socorro, and an Agri- 
cultural School at Las Cruces, each supported by a special 
tax on all the assessable property of the territory. 

But it was not until 1890 that a real advance was made, 
in the passage of a school law worthy the name. Under 
the governorship of L. Bradford Prince a bill was framed 
by L. R. E. Paullin, which included all the features re- 
quired in a modern school system. The State Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction was to be named by the 
governor, and immediately on passage of the law Amado 
Chaves was appointed. No better selection could have 
been made. Don Amado was a member of one of the 



Education in New Mexico 419 

oldest Spanish families of the State, was respected and 
honoured and eminently qualified by his suavity and tact 
to overcome the prejudices held by many of his people 
against popular education. His educational and adminis- 
trative qualities were of the highest order and he un- 
doubtedly laid the foundations of the present educational 
system. Year after year marked advance has been made, 
and while there is yet much to be desired New Mexico 
can congratulate itself that it is in the line of true prog- 
ress. 

In 1898 Delegate Fergusson, of New Mexico, suc- 
ceeded in passing through Congress an act which had a 
most beneficial effect upon educational aflfairs. It pro- 
vided that all sections of school lands numbered i6 and 36 
in every township in the Territory could be leased for the 
support of its public schools. Two townships were re- 
served for the establishment of a University of New Mex- 
ico, and exactly five thousand acres, together with all 
saline lands, were granted for its use. One hundred thou- 
sand acres were set aside for the use of the Agricultural 
College. 

Much needed efforts are now being made to standardize 
the rural schools, to demand higher qualifications of the 
teachers, and to organize night — or " moonlight " schools 
as they are termed — for the benefit of illiterate adults. 
One county superintendent in 19 16 reported sixty of these 
schools established, with an enrolment of 1,549 adults 
receiving free instruction in English and Spanish. 
Marked improvement must result from these laudable en- 
deavours. The earlier endeavours in these lines on the 
part of the teachers were purely voluntary and without 
pay, but the legislature has now provided that extra pay 
shall be given to every teacher who induces ten illiterates 
to enroll and receive certain instruction. Little by little 



420 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

an esprit de corps is being aroused among county super- 
intendents; they are being incited to greater devotion to 
their work, and to arouse a higher enthusiasm for their 
profession among their teachers. The work of the three 
normal schools — the Normal University at Las Vegas, 
which, while authorized in 1893, did not confine itself 
to purely normal work until 1903 ; the Silver City Normal, 
established in 1904; and the Spanish-American Normal 
at El Rito — are all doing excellent work, which, under 
the present state superintendent, Jonathan H. Wagner, is 
rapidly becoming more and more standardized. 

The church and private schools already referred to are 
still in vigorous operation and supplement in needed lines 
the work of the state schools. 

Few outsiders can realize the obstacles thrown, espe- 
cially by large taxpayers, in the way of those who were 
working for a really effective school law. It was not 
until 19 1 5 that a county unit law was passed which gave 
each county its own school taxes, and two years later an- 
other step forward was taken in making each county 
competent to administer its own school affairs. Now, 
with a wide-awake state superintendent, and a county 
board appointed by the district judge of which the county 
superintendent is ex-officio president, school matters are 
coming to the fore with leaps and bounds. 

In addition to this State Teachers' Institutes are being 
held, attendance upon which by every teacher in the State 
is compulsory, and these enthusiastic gatherings gender 
a spirit of progress that is infectious and the beneficial 
influence of which cannot be overestimated. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

THE UNIVERSITY AND SPECIAL SCHOOLS OF 
NEW MEXICO 

The development of a high grade educational institu- 
tion demands adequate funds, a large population with 
high educational ideals, together with a board of trustees 
of wisdom and vision to stand behind its president and 
faculty and further every sane plan for its advancement. 
In its eariy history New Mexico possessed neither funds, 
or the ideal population, hence was not called upon to 
meet the latter needs. In 1889, however, a bill was 
passed by the legislature, creating the University of New 
Mexico, to be located at Albuquerque. Its first years 
were of difficulties and struggles. While a University 
in name, in fact it was but a preparatory school, with 
E. S. Stover as its first president. In 1897, Dr. C. L. 
Herrick, of Denison College, Ohio, was elected president, 
and in 1899 the Hadley Laboratory and a gymnasium 
were built. This former building was burned down in 
1910. 

In 1 90 1 Dr. William G. Tight, a geologist, also from 
Denison College, was elected as successor to President 
Herrick and served until 1909. The call to New Mexico 
was very attractive to Dr. Tight as it seemed to open the 
way to a great, new field for geological research. But 
upon entering the work of the university and learning 
its needs, he discovered that his time was to be largely 
occupied with executive duties, and that it was necessary 
for him to sacrifice much of his professional scientific 

421 



422 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

work. Nevertheless, he threw the vigour of his physical 
and mental energy into the larger interests of the institu- 
tion. In his fertile mind Dr. Tight saw a vision of a 
greater university for New Mexico in the future and be- 
gan to conceive large plans. The grounds were laid out 
with a thought of permanency, and hundreds of trees were 
placed in orderly arrangement as a start for a beautiful 
campus. Another policy pointing toward permanency 
was that of uniformity in the style of buildings to be 
erected, and President Tight ingeniously conceived the 
idea of an Indian Pueblo type of architecture. After 
studying and photographing various buildings in Indian 
villages throughout New Mexico, he began to formulate 
plans for a distinctive type of university buildings, choos- 
ing the style from the native soil, instead of borrowing 
ideas from foreign lands. A power house was first con- 
structed on the new plan, and then dormitories — one 
for women, named Hokona, the Indian significance being 
virgin butterfly; and one for men, called Kwataka, or 
man-eaglet. The Administration Building, a large three- 
story structure and the first building on the campus, was 
remodeled on the lines of the adopted Pueblo plan, and 
an assembly room added and designated Rodey Hall, in 
recognition of the valuable services rendered the Uni- 
versity by B. S. Rodey in the Territorial Legislature and 
the Federal Congress, 

In 1909 Dr. E. D. McQueen Gray was chosen to suc- 
ceed President Tight and served until 19 12. The grant- 
ing of statehood to New Mexico in 191 1, and the natural 
forward impulse given to all its institutions at that time 
led to a decided effort at a forward movement for the uni- 
versity. The people of Albuquerque were aroused as 
never before and began to demand an enlarged and more 
active campaign of higher education. Accordingly Dr. 



The University and Special Schools 423 

David Ross Boyd, who had successfully piloted the Uni- 
versity of Oklahoma from its foundation until it became 
recognized as one of the well established institutions of 
the West, and who had reorganized and standardized the 
missionary schools of the Presbyterian church through- 
out the United States, was called to the presidency. 
Upon election President Boyd began to make a careful 
study of the general educational situation in New Mexico 
and the needs of the university. One of the first things 
to demand attention was the securing of a larger campus 
for immediate and future needs, while land could be pur- 
chased at a reasonable price. By persistent effort, the 
campus has been extended from 25 acres, when President 
Boyd assumed office, to a tract of over 340 acres. This 
additional land, which is well located, was purchased at 
an exceedingly favourable figure, and was secured none 
too soon, as adjacent land has already more than doubled 
in value. With a view to unity in the development of 
plans for the greater university, the administration se- 
cured the services of Mr. Weaker Burleigh Griffin of 
Chicago, a landscape architect and expert in city planning. 
Mr. Griffin had won the $io,ocx) prize in a contest of 142 
architects from different parts of the world, for plans to 
be used in the construction of the new capital city of the 
confederate states of Australia at Canberra, and had then 
been employed to lay out the grounds of the new federal 
district, and superintend the construction of the beauti- 
ful city of Canberra. Mr. Griffin visited the University 
to study the situation and environment and was enthusi- 
astic over the possibilities of developing the large campus 
and constructing buildings in a modified form of the 
unique Pueblo type of architecture. His plans are now 
in the hands of the Regents and President Boyd, for the 
permanent arrangement and beautification of the grounds, 



424 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

and the attractive grouping of new buildings. The rap- 
idly growing chemistry department called for the first 
building under the new plans. It is a plain, substantial 
structure, covering a ground space of 165 feet by 50 feet, 
with the interior marked by the most modern arrange- 
ment, and latest equipment for laboratory work. The 
next building will be for general science, and each depart- 
ment will form its own architectural unit, in accordance 
with the general plan. 

With President Boyd's administration have come some 
important changes in the University curriculum. A be- 
ginning has been made in university extension and corre- 
spondence work in order to accommodate those who may 
seek advancement, but who are unable to attend the Uni- 
versity. The department of home economics has been 
introduced, with excellent up-to-date electrical equipment. 
A chair of theoretical and applied psychology has been 
added to the College of Arts, Philosophy, and Sciences. 
In view of the growing importance of our national rela- 
tions with the Latin-American republics, courses in Span- 
ish history have been provided and greater emphasis has 
been placed upon the teaching of the Spanish language. 
A Course in Commerce, under the direction of the depart- 
ment of economics, has been established on a university 
basis, to take up the larger problems of business, and com- 
mercial relations with other countries. In addition, sev- 
eral full courses in music have been organized in the Col- 
lege of Fine Arts. 

For eight years Dr. Boyd has had his hand on the helm 
and has seen the institution grow in power and influence. 
To use his own words : 

While pursuing plans for the future, the University is adhering 
faithfully to certain very definite standards in its daily work. These 
standards are high and at the masthead we have fixed the slogan, 



The University and Special Schools 425 

" Thoroughness in teaching." The faculty of this University has 
been chosen with first consideration to the abihty and wilUngness and 
eagerness of each member to teach. Teaching the young men and 
women who come here is the first duty of this institution and every 
member of the faculty has become thoroughly imbued with that 
principle and all that it implies in careful, thoughtful, painstaking 
work with and for the individual student. To learn his needs, his 
weaknesses, his tendencies and special adaptabilities and to make 
best use of all, in so far as can be done, to aid each one to gain 
the fullest advantage from his opportunity. We have in the faculty 
men whose attainments in scholarship and scientific research are 
notable. While proud of their attainments and of recognition which 
they receive from time to time, we regard these things as secondary 
to their enthusiasm and ability for the every-day work of teaching. 

The location of the university is on a mesa, about a 
mile east of Albuquerque, overlooking the city and the 
wide valley of the Rio Grande. It is a beautiful, inspir- 
ing spot, though occasionally sandstorms sweep over it. 
These latter give the " grit " that have sent New Mexican 
University Volunteers " over the top " with a marked zip 
and enthusiasm. The perfectly pure air, the clear sky, 
the bracing atmosphere are not only conducive to the best 
of health; they are stimulating and invigorating to the 
highest degree. The student body is worthy all that 
Nature and the State is doing for them. Both youths 
and maidens are healthful-appearing in body and mind, 
exuberant in spirit and eager for work. The future has 
a right to demand and expect much of them, and it will 
not be disappointed. 

In addition to the university there are three other state 
schools deserving of more than passing mention. 

Military Institute. This was created in 1895 with a 
building appropriation of $15,000. It is located at Ros- 
well, in Chaves County. 

It was opened for students in 1898. For the first year 
it was maintamed chiefly as a local high school with mili- 



426 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

tary instruction. In 1899 the board of regents decided to 
make it a strictly military school requiring local as well 
as foreign students to live in garrison and remain under 
military discipline at all times. This was a great venture 
and caused the school a great struggle for a year or two. 
However, the efficiency of the school was apparent to the 
people and students began to come in large numbers. 
The State made increased appropriations and new build- 
ings were erected, until at present the barracks and aca- 
demic buildings and mess hall are considered to be the 
finest group of academic buildings in the Southwest. 
The plant is now valued at about four hundred thousand 
dollars. The average enrolment for the past ten years 
is one hundred and seventy-four cadets. Last session 
three hundred and twelve were matriculated and during 
the coming year a corps of four hundred is expected. 

In 1909 the War Department designated the New Mex- 
ico Military Institute as a " Distinguished Institution," 
since which time it has annually received the highest rat- 
ing awarded to military schools by inspecting officers. 
Graduates of the New Mexico Military Institute have for 
a number of years been received as officers in the army. 
During the war with Germany, the Institute supplied ap- 
proximately three hundred and six graduates and ex- 
cadets. Three hundred of them held commissions, from 
lieutenants to majors. The Institute has a faculty at the 
present time of eighteen college men. One member of 
the faculty is detailed by the War Department. The su- 
perintendent, Colonel James W. Wilson, has been with 
the school since it was first opened, and many of the 
officers and instructors have been on duty with this insti- 
tution for a number of years. 

School of Mines. As its name implies this school was 
established by the legislature in 1889 to give special train- 



The University and Special Schools 427 

ing to those who might ultimately aid in the development 
of the mines of the State. It offers courses in mining, 
engineering, metallurgical engineering, geological engi- 
neering, and civil engineering, leading to degrees in each 
of the courses offered. 

Being located at Socorro it is in the heart of an ex- 
tensive mining region, some of the oldest and most fa- 
mous mines of the State being within easy reach. Here 
the student may come in close touch with actual mining 
processes and the reduction of the ores at a dozen or 
more different mines, where gold, silver, copper, etc., are 
continuously being produced. 

The ground immediately adjacent to the School of 
Mines includes irrigable land, plateaus and mountain 
formations, all affording an excellent field for practice in 
surveying, the laying out of railroads and irrigating 
canals, topography, mine engineering and geology, so that 
students can be prepared at the very door of the school 
in those branches which usually require tedious excur- 
sions from most other schools. Almost the entire geo- 
logical column is here exposed. 

College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. This col- 
lege is located near Las Cruces, in the heart of the fertile 
Mesilla Valley. Both the Federal government and the 
State supply its funds, principally the former, as it is 
largely engaged in experimental work, in teaching service 
and Extension Service. It is doing great and good work 
and seeks the benefit in a direct way of every citizen of 
the State. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

THE ART MUSEUM OF SANTA FE 
DEDICATION ADDRESS BY HON. FRANK SPRINGER 

In the address given by the Hon. Frank Springer at 
the dedication of the Museum in Santa Fe there is so much 
of history and philosophy, couched in terms that entitle 
it to rank as literature, that it is a regret it cannot be 
here reproduced in its entirety. As few ehsions have 
been made as possible, and in every case with care to pre- 
serve all the chief thoughts of the address, and its con- 
tinuity. It must be remembered that the museum was 
opened in November, 19 17, while we were strenuously 
engaged in waging war with Germany. 

The question has been asked whether, in view of the exacting con- 
ditions of war which necessarily claim our paramount interest and 
attention, it is an appropriate thing to hold a meeting like this, and 
celebrate an event which appears to relate solely to the arts of 
Peace. This appearance, however, is to a certain extent misleading; 
for while the methods which are here pursued arc those of Peace, the 
researches themselves embrace all phases of human events. The 
meaning of war, its influence upon the progress of our race, and its 
results as measured by the rise and decadence of peoples and the 
ultimate fate of nations, are no less vital subjects of inquiry than 
those which relate to the less tragic side of life. Therefore there is 
a definite connection between the two apparently diverse fields of 
interest. 

But the matter has a far deeper significance than this, and a mo- 
ment's reflection will show that to the question here propounded 
there can be but one answer. In every nation involved in this war 
the devotees of Science and of Art, while giving freely of their 
brain and their blood in the service to which their allegiance called 
them, have also believed it equally their duty to keep alive those 

428 



The Cathedral of the Desert: " Museum and 
Auditorium, Santa Fe. 

fro>n a Paifitituj made expressly for this work by Carlos V'icrra. 



^^ 



% 






* 



The Art Museum of Santa Fe 429 

scientific and artistic activities which make for human enlighten- 
ment. As one foreign correspondent wrote me, " we must keep the 
flag of Science flying." Another writer, for whose breadth of vision 
I have a profound respect, says of this : " In the warring countries 
of Europe every effort is made to keep alive the sacred flame in the 
temples of pure Science. Academies meet, journals are published, 
researches are continued — not from any indifference to the events 
going on around them, but to preserve, so far as may be, the habit 
of mind which rises above the dust of conflict, and looks toward 
the future of mankind." 

Taking this fine sentence as a beacon light and guide, it becomes 
entirely clear that the ceremonies in which we are now engaged are 
not only fit and proper, but that their observance is a sacred duty 
which we owe to this and future generations. The only difference 
which war should make, is to give to them a greater solemnity and 
a deeper meaning. The world is facing the question whether modern 
civilization is to survive or perish ; whether it shall endure the trials 
which beset it now, and remain the dominant influence in human 
affairs, or whether it shall go down before the fiery blast in which 
the forces of man and nature are harnessed for purposes of destruc- 
tion, leaving only a mighty ruin to mark the most stupendous tragedy 
of all time. Upon this momentous issue the voice of history ad- 
monishes us in tones of solemn warning. 

It is a thrilling moment in the lives of men when dreams come 
true. Not only is it so to those who dream the dreams, but in a 
larger sense are such moments often big with the fate of peoples 
and the progress of mankind. , . . 

It is because the Morses, the Edisons, the Bells, and the Marconis 
dreamed and wrought with unfaltering courage until they made their 
dreams come true, that we of this age can send our thoughts through 
empty space; that continents can talk with each other; and that we 
can transmit to those who shall come after us, not only our thoughts, 
but the sound of our voices as well. And so it is with many another 
case, in which the impossibility of to-day becomes the familiar fact 
of to-morrow. 

It is such a moment, modest though it be by comparison with the 
examples I have cited, that we are here to celebrate to-night. This 
commanding structure — an edifice which in its massive grandeur, 
its majestic simplicity, and its historic significance, thrills all be- 
holders with a new sensation — rises before us as a thing well done. 
And it will stand, for this and future generations, as an imperishable 
monument to the enlightened public spirit of the people of this young 
State. We admire it; we rejoice in it; we are proud of it for what 



430 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

it is and for what it means; and we feel enriched by a sense of 
something truly great accomplished by ourselves. Nevertheless, this 
splendid reality is but the realization of a dream. 

Something has been said, in a personal sense, touching the credit 
for the creation of this great monument. But its successful achieve- 
ment is not to be deemed the work of any individual. It is due to 
the united effort of many people of this commonwealth — especially 
to the broad-minded liberality of the Legislature, which authorized 
its construction ; to the people of Santa Fe, through their Boards of 
Education and County Commissioners, who provided the site, and 
to her noble women, who stand for all that is fine and good in this 
community; to the persons, residents of or interested in the State, 
who contributed the additional funds required for its completion; 
and to the Builder, through whose genius it has arisen from the 
earth. 

To this statement, however, there must be one exception. Such 
an achievement involves more than the hewing of timber or the 
laying of bricks. Behind these must be the conception, and the driv- 
ing force to push it forward. In ancient Egypt and Assyria pyra- 
mids and temples arose at the monarch's nod, out of the blood and 
sweat of multitudes, at a cost in human misery only exceeded by 
that of war. But in these times the force which avails is not the 
lash or the goad, but is that of enlightened public sentiment, in- 
spired and led by those who chiefly think for that public. And if 
we trace the history of such events as this to their real beginnings, 
it will be found that always they are the culmination of a series of 
efforts initiated by some one of prophetic vision and inborn leader- 
ship. 

Of this rule the present case is a good example. And to better 
explain what I mean, it will be profitable to take a brief retrospect 
of the activities in southwestern Archaeology leading up to the 
state of public interest which makes an event like this possible. 
These will fall readily into three epochs, almost comparable to the 
great periods of general intellectual history: First — Pioneer scien- 
tific investigation; Second — Vandalism, marked by indifference, 
neglect and destruction; Third — The Renaissance — the rise of 
Systematic Research. 

The first thoroughly scientific study of southwestern Archaeology 
was made by William H. Holmes, in connection with the govern- 
ment surveys under Hayden in 1874 and 5. He has never found 
time enough since to stop working, and as the head of the division 
of Anthropology in the Smithsonian Institution and the honoured 
Chairman of the Managing Committee of the School of American 
Research, he is still the busiest man of either. He explored the 



The Art Museum of Santa Fe 431 

Southwest, its mountains, its canyons and its trails, not only for 
traces of ancient man, but also for the still more ancient works of 
Nature herself. And to his untiring search they yielded up their 
choicest secrets — among them that of perpetual youth. We know 
that he tramped them good and hard, for his tracks may still be 
found throughout an area of six thousand square miles in southern 
Colorado and Utah, northern Arizona and New Mexico, traversed 
by him in those early years ; and when to this day we wish for 
fundamental knowledge concerning the CHff houses of the Mancos, 
the La Plata, and the Mesa Verde, and other prehistoric remains 
from there down to Abiquiu in New Mexico, we may find it all, with 
graphic illustration and accurate scientific interpretation, in the chap- 
ters prepared by Holmes for the volumes of the Hayden Survey. 
And the marks of his hammer can yet be seen along the great Jura- 
Trias and Cretaceous exposures of the San Juan and Grand Canyon 
regions, where he made the fine geological and topographical sketches 
contained in the same Hayden Reports. . . . 

After Holmes came the more definite researches of Adolph Bande- 
lier, from 1880 to 1890, under the auspices of the Archaeological 
Institute of America. Although he was for many years a resident 
of Santa Fe, where much of his work was done and most of his 
reports prepared, probably not six persons out of the entire popu- 
lation of the city realized that this quiet and unpretentious worker 
was engaged in producing a series of volumes that are among the 
most important ever written about the Southwest. His reports are 
the indispensable text books that every beginner carries into the 
field to this day. His explorations included the whole Rio Grande 
drainage, southern Arizona and California. Bandelier was the pio- 
neer in intensive archive research on the Southwest ; and his word- 
pictures of the Cliff Dwellers and their remains, both in the domain 
of Science and of Fiction, served to draw attention to these mys- 
terious antiquities here in our midst, and their relation to the sur- 
viving aboriginal populations, with a clarity and vividness that have 
never been excelled. 

The two men I have mentioned are the outstanding figures in the 
earliest archaeological work of the Southwest. They were followed 
by Fewkes, for the Hemenway Expedition, and later for the United 
States Government — the first systematic excavator in the Southwest. 
His main field in the early days was Arizona, but in later years he 
has covered practically the entire region. 

These three pioneers laid the foundation for all future archaeologi- 
cal work in the Southwest. Between them they established the es- 
sential activities of the science : — exploration, excavation, archive 
investigation, and the study of the surviving peoples. 



432 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 



Nevertheless, their pubHshed works, chiefly buried in ponderous 
volumes of government reports which few people read, were to a 
great extent soon forgotten. And to the majority of the people of 
New Mexico, who of all others were most vitally interested in these 
investigations, the records of them remained as unexplored as the 
regions to which they related had been before. After a time, how- 
ever, attention to the relics of antiquity was aroused by the dis- 
covery that they had a commercial value, and under that stimulus 
digging began afresh with a vigour never previously known. Be- 
ginning with the years just preceding the World's Fair at Chicago, 
and lasting approximately a decade and a half, an epoch of van- 
dalism reigned. For the purpose of securing enormous collections 
for exhibition and sale, the ruins of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and 
New Mexico were looted without restraint. Not only so, but in 
the rush to obtain specimens there was wholesale destruction of the 
ancient works of architecture. Of preservation there was no 
thought, except to preserve the secret of the finds from possible 
rival despoilers. Still less was there any pretense of scientific record 
of the occurrence of the objects removed. It is important to note 
that this mercenary activity was not confined to private individuals. 
Expeditions were organized for its prosecution, and there was 
marked indifference, if not actual participation in some of these 
depredations, by museums seeking to fill their cases, and ignoring 
the higher motives of scientific research. 

While the reign of the unregulated specimen hunter was yet in 
force, there came into this field a young man by whom the works of 
Holmes, Bandelier, and Fewkes had not been overlooked. The 
musty volumes of public documents in which their reports were 
contained had for him no forbidding aspect, but to his active and 
inquisitive mind their perusal opened up the vista of a great sub- 
ject, fit to become a lifetime work; and to this work he resolved to 
devote the energies of his best years. He saw the possibilities which 
lay in the little known area of pre-historic occupation in northern 
New Mexico, and he entered upon its study with the zeal of a scien- 
tific enthusiast. The exploration of these remains of a vanished 
culture, the preservation of the facts concerning them by authentic 
records, and the bringing of them to public attention, became to him 
a fixed and definite purpose; and from that purpose he has never 
deviated to this hour. 

He came from a neighbouring State, where he was already a 
teacher of teachers, to teach us about our own country many things 
we knew not of ; and he was soon annexed by our aspiring young- 
old commonwealth and placed at the head of one of its leading edu- 
cational institutions. He became the inspirer of others, not only of 



The Art Museum of Santa Fe 433 

his students and the teachers under him, who gave up their vacations 
to become volunteer aids to his researches, but of men of afifairs and 
position as well — among them the Chairman of the Public Lands 
Committee of the United States House of Representatives, who 
came out here at his invitation, camped and climbed with him 
among the trails and canyons of the Pajarito Plateau, until he veri- 
fied the facts which had been reported as to the importance of these 
remains, and the necessity for their protection. To this end a 
sharp campaign was begun in the latter part of 1903. The history 
of that campaign is largely an unwritten story, for the most part 
buried in the archives of the executive departments at Washington. 
But it is within my personal knowledge that at the request of this 
same Chairman our young archaeologist prepared, and by his per- 
sistent energy was largely instrumental in securing the passage of, 
the law which brought to the protection of these relics of vanished 
peoples the strong hand of the Federal Government, and brought to 
an end the reign of vandalism which forms the second epoch of our 
brief historic survey. 

The credit for inaugurating the new period which succeeded it be- 
longs to a local institution, the Normal University at Las Vegas. 
From the time it opened its doors in October, 1898, its Board of 
Regents and faculty, under the inspiration and leadership of .this 
teacher of teachers, then its President, held that original research 
was a vital factor in the education of every individual — preemi- 
nently so in the education of teachers. Accordingly it emphasized 
such research, especially in the sciences bearing immediately upon 
life and culture. Its work in Biology and Anthropology was of an 
order for which its resources would have been wholly inadequate, 
had they not been supplemented by the energy and infectious en- 
thusiasm of a master spirit. In connection with the latter, the 
wealth of local New Mexican material was fully recognized. Lec- 
ture courses in southwestern archaeology were offered ; the New 
Mexico Archaeological Society was organized at Santa Fe in the 
fall of 1898; in the summer of 1899 the exploration and excavation 
of the Cliff Dwellings of the Pajarito Plateau were commenced 
under the President, aided by a class of ten students and members 
of the faculty, they paying, as he did, their own personal expenses. 
The work was hard, and water often scarce in some of those arid 
places, where once great people lived and thrived ; but doubtless to 
those young devotees, stimulated by the sensation of new discoveries, 
it seemed better than red Falernian wine. With the meager funds 
that could be furnished by the institution, and the labours of volun- 
teers like these, the work went on during the summer vacations, 
every year for five years. During that time the first authentic sur- 



434 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

vey and map of the region were made ; extensive representative col- 
lections were secured ; prospecting trenches were dug, and sketches 
based upon them were prepared to indicate the probable form, size 
and position of the more important communal buildings, which subse- 
quent investigations have fully verified. Evidence of those re- 
searches, in the shape of typical collections and the original maps 
and drawings made at that time, now form a part of the records of 
the Museum of New Mexico, and may be seen in the various rooms 
of the Old Palace. 

With these expeditions of the Normal University, during the first 
five years of its existence, was ushered in the third epoch of our 
retrospective sketch — that of Systematic Research. 

The work thus done attracted the attention of the Interior Depart- 
ment and the Smithsonian Institution. Inspectors were sent out 
from Washington to report on the New Mexico ruins, and the Nor- 
mal University became the recognized local advisor of the Govern- 
ment in all its preliminary investigations. Some of the pamphlets 
of information furnished by it, published in 1904, ran to tens of 
thousands of copies. By means of all these activities an assemblage 
of facts was made for presentation to Congress, which led directly to 
the enactment of the law for the preservation of American antiqui- 
ties in 1906. 

Meanwhile our arcljseologist, always himself a doer, at intervals 
between his doings dreamed dreams as well. And as he rested 
among the caves of Pajaritan cliffs — attended, perchance, by the 
ghostly company of Pajaritan sages — looking up to the blue firma- 
ment, and inquiring of the stars which had shone on them and him 
alike, there came to his mind visions of comprehensive and reverent 
studies of those forgotten peoples who lived, strove, and perished 
before our time upon this continent; of some kind of institution 
located in our midst by which such studies might be fostered and 
directed ; whose activities, perhaps centering in and radiating from 
this ancient capital, might become of continental extent ; and in 
which the evidence of these little known things might be brought 
within convenient reach, and knowledge of them diffused, for the 
enlightenment and benefit of all the people. A year of exploration 
in Mexico, under the auspices of the Archaeological Institute, con- 
firmed his impressions as to the immensity of the unworked field 
which lay open for research within our own continent. These vari- 
ous labours had by this time gained for him the confidence and 
powerful support of President Kelsey of the Arch?eological Institute 
of America, Miss Alice C. Fletcher of the American Committee of 
the Institute, and Dr. Charles F. Lummis, a member of its Governing 
Council, which resulted in his appointment as Director of American 



The Art Museum of Santa Fe 435 

Archaeology in 1906. And to the unwavering and active cooperation 
of these four persons, backed by the encouragement of that great 
and broad-minded scientist, Professor F. W. Putnam of Harvard, 
more than to any other influence, is due the position of American 
Archceology to-day as a truly national science. The necessity of 
systematically organized effort toward its effectual prosecution be- 
came clearly apparent to these far-sighted co-labourers, and by 
their efforts there was brought to the Science of Archaeology in 
America, and the larger concept growing out of it, the Science of 
Man, what they never had before — organization and a definite pur- 
pose. 

Thus was born the idea of an Institution for research of this 
nature in laboratory and field, where students of Archaeology and 
related Sciences might be directed and trained for original works 
of, their own; and in 1907 the establishment of the School of Ameri- 
can Archaeology, now called the School of American Research, was 
ordered by the Council of the Institute. But the definite conception 
of such a school, by the common and willing consent of all con- 
nected with it, must be credited to the learned and gracious lady 
whose name I have mentioned, who was for the first five years the 
active Chairman of its Managing Committee, and who is now, and 
for uncounted years to come will be, its Chairman emeritus. 

Through the influence of the newly-appointed director solely, and 
against the competition of other localities having much more to 
offer in the way of material support, the seat of this School, as the 
headquarters of organized archaeological research on the American 
continent, was located at Santa Fe. Under the infection of his 
enthusiasm, men in other walks of life who knew nothing of Archee- 
ology, or if they knew entertained it as the curious theme of an 
idle moment, discovered in its objects something worthy of serious 
thought, and willingly enrolled in the goodly company of dreamers 
and doers under his leadership. By his efforts, aided by those who 
caught their inspiration from him, the Museum of New Mexico was 
created upon a far-reaching plan of cooperation with the School of 
American Archaeology, such as would give to it a nation-wide im- 
portance and prestige, and would make this city the official seat from 
which its work should be carried from time to time into other 
American fields. And thus the vision of the dreamer became a 
crowning fact. 

The same controlling personality has guided the subsequent course 
of these institutions; their work now embraces the continent; their 
names have become synonyms for practical efficiency and results 
achieved ; and he who directed may well be content to let the results 
speak for him. The project for an exhibit at San Diego to illus- 



436 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

trate the whole Science of Man — historic, prehistoric, artistic and 
biologic — which has gained the unbounded admiration of the most 
eminent men of this nation, when first presented by him at a meet- 
ing of sober-minded and prudent scientists, was pronounced, in so 
many words, an iridescent dream. Nevertheless, he made the 
dream come true. In that dream and its realization. New Mexico 
has shared. Stimulated by its influence other men dreamed, and 
took courage for splendid things ; and out of their dreamings and 
their doings there arose on the Pacific shore a structure that was 
more than lath and mortar; that was a symbol of New Mexico's 
awakening to the meaning of her past, to the value of her present, to 
the promise of her future — a monument whose reflected light has 
illuminated the State ; and which we have now brought home to her 
own soil, transformed into enduring masonry, and endowed with 
perpetuity, that all her children may cherish and enjoy. 

And thus it comes to pass, as the outcome of these years of plan- 
ning and of striving, that the result is now before us ; and it may 
well be said by him who planned, and by every one whose influence, 
whose encouragement, whose labour, or whose financial aid, have 
helped to bring about this crowning achievement: "If a monument 
you wish, look about you." 

Every man and woman who has had an3rthing to do with the 
Museum of New Mexico, old or new, whether as to its establish- 
ment, its construction, its decoration, or the scientific and artistic 
activities connected with it, if they speak with candour and honesty, 
will say that the basic idea, and the inspiration and dynamic force 
to carry it out, came from a single brain. 

Therefore, I say, in order that the truth may be known of all men, 
that whatever others may have done, be it much or little, toward the 
creation of the epoch-making edifice in which we now stand, there 
is one man, without whose initiative and inspiring force it would not 
be here to-day. His name is Edgar L. Hewett. 

The work of the builders is done. But the task of those who are 
to use what they have builded, and by its use to justify the public 
munificence and private liberality which have made it possible, has 
only just begun. That the completed structure will be an ornament 
to the city, and an added attraction for travelers, will for the mo- 
ment seem to many its most evident appeal. If it stood for noth- 
ing else, then the brain and money spent upon it would have been 
to little purpose. But I conceive its functions to be of far higher 
and nobler import than this ; and it may be an opportune time to 
consider for a moment what are the better things for which this 
fine achievement stands? 

First of all is the lesson which it imparts — the same that was 



The Art Museum of Santa Fe 437 

taught by Father ^sop two millenniums ago, but which mankind is 
ever prone to forget — that when our enterprises lag, when the car 
of progress is stalled in the mire of stagnation, we stop calling on 
the gods for help, and put our own shoulders to the wheel. . . . 

Next in order comes clearly the mission of this building to honour 
the Past. It is intended to commemorate a page of history that is a 
blank to the Anglo-Saxon and amalgamated peoples who call them- 
selves "Americans." To judge from what the popular histories and 
literature of these United States have told uSj it might well be sup- 
posed that modern civilization on this continent began with the 
landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, or at the earliest with 
the founding of Jamestown, in 1607. We knew something of the 
purely military occupation of parts of the Spanish-American posses- 
sions. From the enchanting romance of our one-time Governor 
Wallace, and from the scarcely less romantic history of Prescott, we 
had learned of the invasion and conquest of Mexico by the almost 
incredible campaigns of the Spanish soldiery under Cortez — an 
achievement of arms which for sheer military ability, inflexible 
resolution, personal heroism, endurance, courage, and the victorious 
accomplishment of impossibilities, is not surpassed in the annals of 
war. With the capture and death of Montezuma, Alvarado's leap, 
and the tragedies of the Triste Noche, we have been familiar from 
childhood. But Spain was not only a great conqueror ; she was also 
a great colonizer, who followed up her arms with the arts of Peace. 
And what our school books and our histories do not tell us is, that 
long before the Mayflower touched the shores of New England, in 
many cases nearly a full century before, there had been planted 
in the great Southwest, of which we are a part, by the Spanish na- 
tion, in the footsteps of her dauntless conquistadores, every one of 
the agencies of Civilization and Peace known to those times, headed 
by the Hospital, the Printing Press, and the School. . . . 

This very capital of Santa Fe, seat of government of a vast 
province, was founded before Jamestown. To achieve and maintain 
the dominion which preceded and followed it, called for marches, 
battles and sieges, of the same appalling and heroic character as 
those of the first conquerors. Explorations of prodigious hardship 
and extent, unparalleled in our eastern settlements, opened up a 
knowledge of the country as a guide to intelligent colonization. 
Not only so, but those conquerors, explorers, and colonizers, in 
spite of the privations and perils by which they were daily con- 
fronted, found time to write for transmission to the mother country, 
reports and treatises upon the countries they had seen and their 
doings therein, of amazing fullness and wealth of detail, which form 
by themselves an enormous literature. Nowhere in any English- 



438 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

speaking colony has there been anything to compare with it. To 
say nothing of the muhitude of pubhshed books containing these 
relaciones, I am informed by a competent authority from recent 
personal examination, that there are at this day in the Royal Library 
at Seville, in Spam, at least three million unpublished manuscripts 
relating to the Spanish colonies in America; and that it would take 
a force of trained scholars, with proper clerical assistance, fully fifty 
years to even make a digest of their contents. 

Some of the accounts of these early writers on New Mexico are 
works of truly classic rank, and for tense narrative and dramatic 
interest are worthy to be read along with Herodotus and Xenophon. 

While this building, in all its historic significance, relates back to 
the period of the Spanish conquerors, it is not their deeds, daunt- 
less and amazing as they were, which it is especially designed to 
commemorate. In its massive walls and unique design are typified 
the works of men of equally intrepid, and far more unselfish cour- 
age ; men who bore the cross instead of the sword ; who endured 
privation, suffering, torture and martyrdom, with a fortitude and 
religious enthusiasm which have never been surpassed ; who stood 
between the mailed Spaniard and the cotton-clad Indian trusting to 
his temples and his gods, as the Apostles of peace and good-will ; 
men who buildcd as they preached, and who left behind them as me- 
morials of their crusade works which a New Mexican author, writ- 
ing reverently of their period, says were " not little log or mud 
chapels, but massive stone masonries, whose ruins stand to-day the 
noblest of our North America." 

Not only the noblest, but of their kind by far the oldest. For 
more than half a century the American public has been familiar 
with the Missions of California, and in their picturesque beauty and 
romantic settings has thought to recognize the prototypes of Chris- 
tian religious edifices within our national boundaries. That public 
has not known, and most of it does not know to-day, that here in 
New Mexico, more than a hundred and fifty years before the first 
Mission of California, arose a series of Mission Churches of an 
architecture new, distinct, unlike any other upon this continent, and 
evolved out of the conditions of their environment. They were 
builded by that devoted order of Franciscan Brothers, the life and 
influence of whose great founder are depicted and illuminated by 
the paintings upon these walls. 

These paintings were conceived and begun by a young and great 
artist, by whose untimely death, in the opinion of every competent 
observer who has inspected his numerous other works, Ameri'^nn 
Art lost one of its brightest lights. A man of poetic imagination ; 



The Art Museum of Santa Fe 439 

a deep and philosophic thinker; a painter of infinite courage, and 
loving the Southwest in which he was born — he wrought unceas- 
ingly with brain as well as brush. What he projected and had fairly 
well begun, has been completed with fidelity by his two comrades, 
who took upon themselves the hardest task an artist can be called 
to do — to finish what another has commenced. Unselfishly they 
subordinated their own personalities that the creation of their friend 
might not perish. To him who laid down the brush beside his un- 
finished canvases, we can offer only the perennial tribute of our 
admiration. To those who took it up, and wrought loyally and well 
that his ideals might live, let us give all honour and praise. 

To recount the facts and achievements of those soldiers of the 
Cross, the Franciscan friars, would require time far beyond that at 
my disposal ; but they may all be found along with the other vital 
facts marking the beginnings of this commonwealth, in the works 
of our New Mexico historians. ... In the forefront of every march 
and every exploration there was always the brown-robed Franciscan, 
bearing along with his crucifix, the trowel and the book. To con- 
vert, to build, and to teach — these were the self -devoted tasks to 
which he consecrated his life, . . = Especially at this time do we 
honour him as a builder. Living among a passionate people, who 
resented the intrusion of strange gods among their own, often sur- 
rounded by cruel and relentless foes — the type of his structures 
was determined by the conditions of his existence. There must be 
a church in which to preach the new religion ; a convent in which 
to live; and along with these a school in which he might give in- 
struction. These must be connected and compactly placed to serve 
as a fortress against present enemies ; and they must be massive, to 
withstand the ravages of time. There were eleven such churches 
in New Mexico alone prior to the landing of the Mayflower; and 
more than fifty others were established here during the century 
which followed. Some of the noblest of them are in ruins, which 
it is the object of this institution to protect from further decay. 
Others have been made into worse than ruins by the acts of mis- 
guided priests of recent times, seeking to " improve " and " modern- 
ize " them. But enough remain untouched by the spoiler to enable 
us, by utilizing the imposing features of existing churches and those 
learned by careful study of the ruins, to reconstruct with fidelity to 
the best original conceptions of those great builders an example 
which may be called a composite of their finest structures. 

Such is the building in which we are now assembled. And we 
offer it, confidently, for the judgment of the American people, as the 
noblest, simplest, and in every way the most impressive type of 
Christian architecture originating upon this continent. Borrowed as 



440 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

to design from a religious edifice of one of the great theological 
denominations, it is to become here a home of Science, of Art, and 
of Education; free of all sectarian influence, but to whose benefits, 
for the purposes to which it is devoted, all creeds shall be welcome. 

In the chapel where the builders were wont to preach. Science will 
raise its torch; where once they dwelt. Art will reign; and where 
they taught their simple lessons, modern Education will approach 
the problems of our time. The voice of the Friar will not be heard ; 
but his influence and example will endure. And if we who succeed 
him shall bring to the new tasks even a small part of the energy, the 
perseverance, and the single-hearted devotion which were exhibited 
by those old Franciscans, then indeed may we hope to leave me- 
morials of our time that will outlast even these walls, and transmit 
to our posterity a worthy record of our activities. 

Back of all this, and from a scientific as well as an ethical point of 
view perhaps most important of all, lies the motive to render tardy 
justice to the native American. By this I do not mean people who 
happen to be born here in these times. But I refer to those who 
inhabited the Indies which Columbus unknowingly discovered, and 
whom the European found a prey to his superior equipment for 
war; who had worked out for themselves the problems of life as an 
independent racial stock ; who had conceived their religious systems 
through reflection upon Nature's visible forces; who practised them 
usually with the humility that such reflection begets, but occasionally 
to the point of human sacrifice with the enthusiasm of the Ma 
hometan slaying whomsoever believed not the Koran, or of the 
Christian burning other Christians who believed a difi^erent Christi- 
anity from his own ; who lived according to their lights for the com- 
mon good of the people ; who loved and fought, and conquered their 
neighbours or were conquered by them, according to the same 
natural law as other men, and in conformity with the best Caucasian 
examples; who defended their country against invasion with the 
same courage that has inspired heroic poetry in all times ; who 
thought out within this continent a hundred or more diff^erent lan- 
guages, some of them with grammars of amazing intricacy; who 
builded, with wood, with mud, or with stone according to their sur- 
roundings, monuments of their culture and their beliefs — the 
Alaskan the Totem at his dwelling front; the Cliff-dweller his 
shrines and his Kivas; the Inca his cyclopean Andes fortresses; the 
Maya his temples and his glyphs ; the Navaho his ritualistic sand 
paintings to vanish in a day; while the plains Indian, having nothing 
with which to build, created in his mind temples to the unseen 
Powers of marvelous composition, which passed down from genera- 
tion to generation by word of mouth. 



The A rt Museum of Santa Fe 441 

We cannot restore to the original American his lost dominion ; nor 
from our view of human progress might it be desirable to do so. 
But we can learn something about him, as the representative of a 
fourth part of the human race, and even something from him. He 
was old when we came upon him, with an antiquity now growing 
by research and to be measured by millenniums perhaps as many as 
our own. He has left no history save that written by alien con- 
querors, and that handed down by himself in the memorials of his 
works and the culture of the surviving peoples. It is by these alone 
that he must be studied. And if such study be made with serious 
purpose and open mind, it may be found not only of interest to the 
plodding scientist, but of inspiration to the artist, and of profit to 
the average citizen. For we may learn from him many things on 
which it is useful to reflect — reverence for the Powers of the Uni- 
verse; the value of the spoken word when passed; respect for Age, 
obedience to Authority, and devotion to the State — which should 
make for better citizenship, for more unselfish patriotism, and for 
the greater security of our national ideals. 

Another thought follows so logically upon this that it may not be 
passed by without a word. Stimulated by the restrictions of Euro- 
pean war, there has grown up in this country a movement designed 
to influence travel which is expressed by the legend, " See America 
First." Hitherto, whenever the word " travel " was mentioned, the 
thought instantly reverted to the attractions of Europe; and any 
allusion to the subject of Archaeology suggested to the mind of the 
average intelligent American nothing but the antiquities of the Old 
World, he forgetting, or rather not having learned, that the country 
which belongs to us has antiquities of its own. . . . 

It is to promote the knowledge of this inviting field, and to place 
the study of it upon a par with that of other regions, that the or- 
ganization has been formed whose activities are centered in this 
building, and will be bounded only by the limits of our own conti- 
nent; and whose purposes, to investigate whatever man has been or 
what he has done within these limits, are all expressed by its title, 
" School of American Research." For the achievement of these pur- 
poses, as a laudable and thoroughly appropriate national object, 
upon a plane of intellectual endeavour above the ordinary, and in 
which a prosperous nation may well take a patriotic pride, we invite 
the support of the American people. Therefore, to provide an 
effectual expression of the thought which should animate our people 
as never before in our history, I propose that we add to the slogan 
of the sight-seer the more comprehensive watch-word, that shall 
appeal alike to the student, the traveler, and the patriot — Know 
America First. So it may come to pass that from the turmoil of 



442 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

theories, of agitations, and of vain-glorious boastings, and from the 
dismal follies of idle luxury, this nation may pass on to a more 
worthy epoch of hard and earnest work — whose aim, with organized 
purpose and concerted striving, shall be to render just account of the 
wealth of earth, air and sky with which a bountiful Providence has 
endowed us. Thus may America begin to know herself, and go 
forward with power and majesty to the destiny which invites her. 
Thus from borrowers and imitators shall we become creators, and 
our creations shall challenge the respect of mankind. Depending no 
longer upon other lands or times for inspiration to brush, to chisel, 
to trowel or to song, we shall find at home the themes for boundless 
achievement, and our arts shall grow — as this temple has grown, 
and as all true and enduring Art must ever grow — straight from 
our own soil. 

Thus while the Past may teach us, it is the Future that calls and 
beckons. And herein, finally, lies the supreme mission of this 
building, and of the organizations and influences which cluster 
around it — to point the way to this inspiring goal, and to bear a 
part in its attainment. 

To these lofty purposes we are dedicating this edifice to-night. 
Yet far better than by any words of mine has it already been dedi- 
cated by the thought, the devotion, and the labour of those who con- 
ceived it, of the architects who planned, and of the builder who 
brought it into being. 

But now borrowing, reverently, from the thought voiced in the 
sublimest passage in the literary annals of this nation, let it be said 
that in a higher sense we of this commonwealth, not alone those of 
Science and of Art, but the great body of the people now here 
represented, do rather dedicate ourselves to the understanding, the 
safe-guarding, and the advancement of the objects for which this 
building stands ; so that we may realize the dignity of its character, 
the solemnity of its purposes, and the majesty of what it represents; 
that we may cherish it with affectionate solicitude, and intrench it 
impregnably with our veneration and respect. 

Let us hope that as often as we look upon its noble exterior, or 
enter within its portals, we may take inspiration from the thought of 
what it means ; that we may learn that the problem of humanity 
has many sides ; that money is not all there is, but that there are 
other things in this life worthy of our attention, which may bring 
us to greater satisfaction as the years go on. 

And let us resolve that within these walls, thus consecrated to 
serious reflection upon what they signify and what they commemo- 
rate, the ordinary contentions of men may not enter ; that the com- 
petitions of politics, the mad pursuit of wealth, power and position, 



I 



1 



The Art Museum of Santa Fe 443 

may find no place here ; but that in this sanctuary, which should be 
for us as sacred as the prototypes on which it is modeled, there 
shall be ever present to our minds as the guiding Genius of the place, 
a benign and radiant Spirit, which, if we will but yield ourselves to 
its chastening influence, shall permeate and possess us ; shall deliver 
us from every base and sordid passion; shall uplift us to the level 
of our own better natures ; and make us worthy of the heritage 
which the mighty Past has left us. 



CHAPTER XXIX 

IRRIGATION IN NEW MEXICO 

The valley of the Rio Grande might not inappropri- 
ately be termed " the historic heart of America." Sev- 
enty years before the Pilgrim Fathers landed on Ply- 
mouth Rock — and first fell upon their knees and then 
upon the aborigines — Marcos de Nizza and Coronado 
had penetrated this valley and were starting a movement 
that ultimately led to the colonization and christianization 
of what are now New Mexico, Arizona, California, 
Nevada, Utah, Colorado and Texas. The Rio Grande 
Valley was the base of these extensive operations. Up its 
length traveled the later colonizers, and down it fled in 
terror the priests and people to escape torture and murder 
from the exasperated Indians in the rebellion of 1680. 
Espejo, Chamuscada, Juan de Onate, the Zaldivars, and 
Villagra, — what names spring to the memory as those 
early days are recalled. Then, after the rebellion came 
the reconquest by Don Diego de Vargas and Otermin, 
followed by Francisco Cuervo de Valdez as Governor, 
appointed by the new viceroy, the Duke of Albuquerque. 
In honour of his patron, Cuervo founded, in 1706, the 
third Spanish villa of New Mexico, in a fertile valley of 
the Rio Grande, and gave it his name. 

During these years of early settlement the colonists 
utilized the waters of the Rio Grande by establishing 
extensive though crude irrigation systems along its course. 
In this they followed the example set them by the In- 
dians, who, from time immemorial had been irrigationists 

and whose ancient and abandoned canal systems the colon- 

444 



Irrigation in New Mexico 445 

ists often utilized. But the Rio Grande is an uncertain 
river. Those who, in those days, rehed upon its waters 
soon designated it as treacherous. For the Rio Grande, 
sometimes, is torrential in its wild floods, and again, it 
ceases entirely, not a single trickle of water being found 
in its sandy bed. It rises in Colorado and flows south- 
ward the entire length of New Mexico ; for a distance of 
four miles above El Paso, forming the boundary between 
Texas and New Mexico, then for 1,300 miles it winds its 
tortuous way, forming the boundary between Texas and 
Mexico, finally emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. 
Above El Paso it has a length of about 900 miles, and a 
drainage area of 38,000 square miles. Its headwaters 
in the basin of Colorado and New Mexico are found in 
snow-clad mountain peaks. When the melting time oc- 
curs, spring and early summer, the river rises higher and 
higher, and in the autumn and winter it flows but slightly. 
The major portion of the New Mexico drainage area 
is arid and desert in character, and the meager precipita- 
tion is erratic in consequence. 

The permanent summer flow of water is entirely ap- 
propriated in the upper reaches of the river, leaving for 
the southern portion of New Mexico little more than the 
floods which occur at irregular intervals. These used to 
wash out the temporary dams of brush and rock that were 
employed, and which could not be rebuilt until the water 
subsided. 

This was the state of affairs when the Reclamation 
Service was called upon for aid. It w^as soon evident 
that permanent dams were required at the head of each of 
the small valleys that line the river. Indeed it has not in- 
aptly been said that a map of this river appears like a link 
of irregular-sized sausages, reaching from San Marcial, 
N. M., to El Paso, Texas. 



446 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

The International Boundary Commission was also 
called upon to help solve the problem. It worked out a 
plan whereby water would be stored in the Rio Grande, by 
building a dam just above El Paso, which would serve the 
needs of 50,000 acres of land, more than half of which 
were on the Mexican side. This plan, however, did not 
utilize the entire flow of the river, and not only did it lack 
both storage capacity and irrigable land ; it furnished 
no water for irrigating land in New Mexico — where it 
was largely needed — and at the same time would sub- 
merge a large acreage in that State. It was not to be 
wondered at, therefore, that the project was unhesitat- 
ingly condemned by all New Mexicans. 

Chief Engineer Davis of the Service had made himself 
personally familiar with the peculiar hydrographic and 
other conditions of the Rio Grande River. He knew 
that the enormous floods which occur do not come with 
any regularity, and the total flow in some years is less 
than one-twelfth that of others. The amount of silt 
carried is excessive, and this would be caught and held 
by any reservoir, irrespective of its size. With a small 
reservoir this would soon become a serious problem. He 
saw, therefore, that it was imperative that the reservoir 
be as large and deep as possible, so as to minimize 
evaporation, to have ample capacity for carrying surplus 
waters from " fat " years to " lean " and a surplus ca- 
pacity for silt accumulations, so that the sediment would 
not materially encroach upon the necessary water-storage 
capacity for many years. Such a site he had found in 
1902 in the canyon below Elephant Butte, where a dam 
could be erected that would back up the water for about 
forty miles, without submerging any large body of good 
land or wash out any railroad, and that would give stor- 
age capacity for over two million acre-feet of water, cap- 



Irrigation in New Mexico 447 

able of irrigating- 180,000 acres of land. Later studies 
revealed that the reservoir could be built so as to hold 
upward of two and a half million acre-feet of water. 

As the republic of Mexico and the State of Texas both 
made irrigation claims upon the Rio Grande, agreements 
were made with them for their proportion of water and 
the way was thus cleared for progress. Accordingly 
the dam was built, its system of canals and distribution 
perfected and to-day they are in full operation. For 
full particulars of this cyclopean work the reader is re- 
ferred to my complete book on the labours of the U. S. 
Reclamation Service,^ 

In the adjudication of the rights of the various water- 
users on the Rio Grande there were many and conflict- 
ing interests to consider. In the first place it must be re- 
called that its headwaters, and those of its earlier tribu- 
taries, are in Colorado. Necessarily the citizens who 
dwell in that State, near to these sources, felt they had 
the first claim upon the water. 

It is a fair-sized stream that enters the boundaries of 
New Mexico, almost due north of Taos, and flows prac- 
tically parallel with the course of the Denver and Rio 
Grande railway, until the latter crosses it for its east- 
ward bend to Santa Fe. The river was called upon 
to supply water for many larger and smaller irrigation 
works in the northern part of New Mexico, and constant 
use had seemed to constitute an inalienable right. This 
condition existed here and there until the Elephant Butte 
Dam was reached. Naturally, the settlers below the dam 
exclaimed : " We are entitled to the water the govern- 
ment project has assured us." But El Paso, Texas, and 
old Mexico also had claims, and thus there were calls 
upon this " raging river of the North," that could not 

1 Reclaiming the Arid West, Dodd, Mead & Co., New York. 



448 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

always be satisfied unless, and until, the enlarged plans 
of such far-sighted statesmen as F. H. Newell, formerly 
director of the U. S. Reclamation Service, A. P. Davis, 
the present director and chief engineer, and the late U. S. 
Senator Newlands of Nevada are carried out. These 
men have long seen that the full demands of the people 
for water to irrigate their lands never can be met until 
all the flood waters are captured and controlled at their 
sources, at the time and in the places where they leap into 
being during the swift melting of the winters' snows. 
What the government has done in this line in the past, — 
great though it seems to be and is — is but a slight be- 
ginning compared with the magnitude and comprehensive- 
ness of the plans it must carry out in the future. Every 
stream, however large or small, that has land to be ir- 
rigated on, or near, or accessible, to its banks, must ulti- 
mately be controlled as perfectly as are the ordinary rain 
showers in any well-ordered city. Hundreds, perhaps 
thousands, of millions of dollars may be needed to 
achieve this, but it will be done. Statesmen will become 
tired of doing what politicians have done, viz., paying 
the damages caused by flood-waters every year, while at 
the same time they lose the beneficial waters imperatively 
needed for irrigation. They will go to the source; im- 
pound the flood waters, thus cutting off once and forever 
all possibility of flood-damages, and at the same time 
provide for the needs of the land, now vacant and use- 
less, upon which teeming millions of happy populations 
can then be settled. 

The Carlsbad Project 

Another river in New Mexico that appealed to the 
vision of the irrigation farmer was the Pecos. This 
river rises about forty miles northwest of Las Vegas in 



Irrigation in New Mexico 449 

the wooded and mountainous area included in the Pecos 
Forest Reserve, and flows in a general southeasterly 
course through the counties of Mora, San Miguel, 
Leonardwood, Chaves and Eddy into Texas and thence 
to the Rio Grande. It drains a region above the Carlsbad 
Project of 22,000 square miles. Like all the streams of 
this region, it is almost dry at times, and at others is sub- 
ject to violent floods. 

Where the Pecos River crosses Eddy County it flows 
through a valley from six to twenty miles wide, the 
soil of which is a sandy loam with considerable lime pe- 
culiar to this region, and which bears the name of the 
river. The success of the Indians and Mexicans in grow- 
ing a variety of crops led to enthusiastic and eager set- 
tlement of this valley and the appropriation of all avail- 
able water for irrigation. 

Private enterprise sought to meet the public needs, but 
the cost was so great and so many unexpected difficulties 
were encountered that finally the work had to be taken 
over by the Reclamation Service, under whose direc- 
tion it is now being carried on. 

The Hondo Project 

Another irrigation project was demanded by the peo- 
ple of New Mexico, but it has proven a practical failure 
owing to the peculiar nature of the ground upon which 
the dam and reservoir were located. I have told the full 
story in the book especially devoted to the work of 
Reclamation, and it is one well worth reading, as it re- 
veals some idea of the difficulties in the way, which our 
foremost engineers were unable to foresee. 



CHAPTER XXX 

ALBUQUERQUE, THE COMMERCIAL METROPOLIS OF 
NEW MEXICO 

Stated in bald terms, New Mexico's chief financial 
assets for two centuries have been sheep, cattle and mines. 
N'ow two other most important assets must be added. 
These are agriculture and romance. Such valleys as 
those of the Pecos and Rio Grande have always proven 
their great fertility where water was to be had for irri- 
gation, as is shown in the chapter upon that subject, and 
of late years millions have been added to the annual in- 
come of New Mexico by this means. And now certain 
portions of the State are beginning to " cash-in " on its 
romance. The psychology of the traveler is complex, be- 
cause the traveler is complex. He is composed of every 
class of person who has been fortunate enough to amass 
money. Among travelers will be found men and women 
to whom stupendous scenery does not appeal ; who care 
nothing for the Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, Glacier 
National Park or the Yellowstone. Yet they might be 
ready and willing, eager, indeed, to travel miles to see 
such a natural wonder as the Lava Flows in the Zuni 
mountains, and those near Mt. San Matec (Mt. Taylor), 
or to visit the romantic cHfif-dwellings and plateau towns 
of the Rito de los Frijoles. There are those to whom the 
living Indians of the Pueblo of Acoma of to-day would 
not make the slightest appeal, who, on the other hand, 
would be profoundly moved by the story of Katdmo, — 

450 



Albuquerque, the Commercial Metropolis 451 

the Enchanted Mesa — and its fateful and forceful aban- 
donment by the rude hand of Storm. 

As is clearly shown in other chapters, New Mexico is 
the State of all states for romance in its history, its scen- 
ery, and its Indians — past and present. Albuquerque, 
owing to its location and railway relationships, is essen- 
tially the gateway to a large area of these romantic loca- 
tions. Of the scores of thousands of travelers by rail 
and automobile that annually visit California, fully fifty 
per cent, would spend from a week to 'a month in New 
Mexico did they fully grasp the full significance of what 
the earlier pages of this book contain. California is no 
more fascinating in its history than New Mexico. The 
latter's missions, while architecturally less striking than 
those of California, are more interesting in their history 
and romance. There are cliff-dwellings of unbounded al- 
lurement, and ruined cities that have excited the keen at- 
tention of travelers ever since they were first discovered. 
One can travel the world over to find more picturesque 
and peculiar, absolutely unique and singular ceremonials 
than those performed by the Indians of Acoma, Laguna, 
Zuni, and the Pueblos of the Rio Grande. And nowhere 
else in the world is that pathetic brotherhood — the Peni- 
tentes — known to exist except here. Why go to 
Lourdes to see miracles of healing at a sacred shrine when 
at the old Sanctuario at Chimayo one may see the deaf 
made to hear, the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, 
the decrepit made strong ? — or, at least, so say the faith- 
ful and many who claim to have been healed. Where 
also in the world can one see people who actually believe 
in witches and who within present historic time have offi- 
cially and legally slain them as the highly religious and 
cultivated ancestors of our New England citizens did 
two or three centuries ago? The very hand that writes 



452 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

' ' ' ■ ' " ^ ' ■ ■ 

these words has cut down some of the ropes that have 
bound alleged witches ; has bound up the cruel wounds in- 
flicted upon them for their witchcraft, and held back 
those who in their fury would have slain men and women 
who were accused of this heinous crime. 

Within a few miles of Albuquerque rare mountain 
scenery is to be enjoyed, — wooded canyons joyous with 
singing birds and made alive by tuneful cataracts and bab- 
bling creeks. In the Sandias, and Manzanos to the east, 
comparatively close at hand are these delightful vaca- 
tion places, and to the southwest appear the Ladrones, the 
Socorro, and Magdalena mountains, while to the north 
lie the Cochiti and Jemez ranges, in the latter of which 
are found the famous curative mineral springs of Jemez. 
Twelve miles from the city another famous group of 
mineral springs are found, named after the slinking and 
retreating coyote. 

In all these ranges the policy of the government now 
invites the city dweller to make his vacation home. Lots 
are set apart for personal and family use ; water and 
sewer facilities often provided ; and every inducement of- 
fered to the citizen to build a summer cottage in these 
charming and park-like retreats. Scores of those who 
live in Albuquerque have availed themselves of this op- 
portunity ; they have erected cottages ; and others by the 
hundreds, the thousands, go out for brief picnic, week- 
end or camping-out parties. 

Not far away from Albuquerque are those mythical 
cities of allurement and gold — Abo, Tabira and Gran 
Quivera, and on its streets and at its railway station 
are daily seen the descendants of the ancient cliff-dwellers, 
the Pueblo Indians. 

The city itself was founded in the romantic period of 
Spanish occupancy, and derives its name from Don Fran- 




CHURCH OF SAN FELIPE DE NERI. 



Albuquerque, the Commercial Metropolis 453 

CISCO Fernandez de la Cueva Enriquez, Duke of Al- 
buquerque. The Duke of Albuquerque was appointed 
thirty-fourth viceroy of New Spain by King Felipe V of 
Spain, and entered upon his new duties with headquarters 
in Vera Cruz in 1702. Don Francisco Cuervo y Valdez, 
appointed Governor of New Mexico by the Duke of 
Albuquerque, founded the " Villa " of Albuquerque in 
1706, calling it San Francisco de Albuquerque, in honour 
of the viceroy. The latter, with becoming modesty, 
caused the name to be changed to San Felipe de Al- 
buquerque in honour of the King of Spain. It is be- 
lieved by many that Coronado passed through here with 
his soldiers in or near the year 1 540, when it was a pueblo 
of considerable size. A boulevard passing through the 
lovely Cottonwood groves and meadows along the east 
bank of the Rio Grande will soon link this bit of medieval 
Spain in America with the Ocean-to-Ocean Highway near 
Albuquerque. Evidences of the Spanish regime in Al- 
buquerque exist principally in the language and customs 
of the Mexican population and in the noble church struc- 
ture which still stands within the precincts of the city. 
It is dedicated to San Felipe de Neri, and is used daily 
for public worship. 

Albuquerque is one of the cities of the West that is so 
openly, so rampantly healthy, so gloriously deluged with 
vivifying sunshine and purified with healing breezes that 
it invites with open arms the sick and ailing to enter its 
portals assured of a hearty and sincere welcome. The 
climatic conditions are remarkable. Situated at an alti- 
tude of 5,000 feet, Albuquerque is favoured with a winter 
of pleasant mildness, and a summer climate by no means 
oppressively hot. The weather records show an average 
of 315 perfect days in the year. The atmosphere is re- 
markable for its dryness, the mean annual precipitation 



454 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

being only 7.51 inches. A broad, high, dry mesa lies to 
the north, south and east of the city. These conditions 
are especially favourable to those afflicted with tuber- 
culosis, and thousands who have come here have been 
greatly benefited or cured. The very noticeable lack of 
moisture and almost constant sunshine, with its captiva- 
ting cheer and invigorating warmth, produce a physical 
and mental elafion which plays an important part in the 
restoration of health. 

That the climate is not monotonous, however, is evi- 
denced by the records for 19 17. More former records 
were broken that year than ever before since they have 
been kept. For instance, the twelve months were the dry- 
est ever reported, the total precipitation being 3.20 inches 
for the year, which was less than half the normal. 

The hottest day since the establishment of the station, 
six years ago, fell in July, 19 17, when the mercury 
touched 100 degrees. The nearest approach to that mark 
was in July, 1915, when the thermometer registered 99. 

Three months of the year 1917, — April, November, 
and December — had no precipitation whatever, and two 
months, October and November, had not a cloudy day. 

The year showed the greatest monthly ranges in the 
history of the station. October, November and Decem- 
ber ranges were recorded of 41.6, 41.7 and 42 respectively. 

The nearest approach to zero during the year was in 
February when 7° above was registered. 

July is 'the hottest month, with an average of 74 de- 
grees for six years; and December is the coldest with an 
averate of 16.7 for six years. The average annual 
precipitation for six years is 7.28 inches. 

Owing to these climatic conditions various institutions 
for special treatment of tuberculosis have been founded, 
the Catholics, the Methodists, and Presbyterians each hav- 



Albuquerque, the Commercial Metropolis 455 

ing their own commodious buildings in addition to two 
large private sanitariums. I can speak personally of the 
care received in the general hospital connected with the 
Catholic Institution. While traveling in an adjoining 
State in the year 19 17 I was unfortunate enough to eat 
something that developed swiftly into a serious case of 
ptomaine poisoning with strange and painful complica- 
tions. As I got on the train I wrote my wife that I was 
" burning up " with a suddenly-developed fever, but on 
arriving at Albuquerque succeeded in reaching my quar- 
ters at the University where I was then stopping. Some- 
time during the day my moans were heard and President 
Boyd and my good friend Dr. Peters sent for. They 
found me in deep distress, my face and head fearfully 
swollen and distorted with erysipelas. At once I was 
removed to St. Joseph's Sanatorium, carefully isolated 
and provided with a nurse. Within ten days or so, I 
was allowed to leave, but an abscess formed in the inner 
ear; I had lock-jaw for a month, was almost deaf in one 
ear for six months and in the other for four, and was 
afflicted with what was later affirmed " chronic asthma." 
The constant and intelligent supervision of my case by 
Dr. Peters and the care received, undoubtedly saved my 
life, so that I have a very warm spot in my heart for St. 
Joseph's, its competent physicians and its tender-hearted 
nurses. 

Albuquerque publishes herself as " The Heart of the 
Well Country," and issues a monthly paper under the 
title which the sufferer will do well to send for. And I 
am prepared to affirm my strong belief that if those who 
are " run down," or overtaxed in body, mind or spirit 
would come out here, equipped for a prolonged camp- 
ing-out trip and start out into the open, tramping, riding 
horseback, or on a wagon, or even in an automobile, 



456 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makers 

daily getting out and climbing the mountains or strolling 
in less arduous fashion through the canyons, eating 
frugally of simple fare, sleeping, bathing, and exercising 
in the open, not only would they be restored to the in- 
estimable blessing of health, but they would add years of 
radiant, joyous vigorousness to that health that would 
entirely change their outlook in life and its significance. 

Of the city itself little need be said save that it is an 
active, bustling, prosperous city of some 26,000 popula- 
tion, with about sixty miles of graded business and resi- 
dence streets. No modern provision for sanitation and 
comfort has been omitted. 

There are several notable buildings in the city, chief 
among which are the unique state University Buildings, 
elsewhere referred to, the High School, Wright's Curio 
Store — a fine example of adaptation of Pueblo archi- 
tecture to modern needs, — the Santa Fe Railway Depot 
and the Alvarado Hotel. The latter is one of the show 
buildings of the West. It is largely in the California 
Mission style of architecture, covers several acres of 
ground and is the striking feature of the city. Chimes 
greet the incoming traveler, and the Fred Harvey name 
assures the perfection of the hotel and dining service. 
Here also is housed one of the finest Indian collections on 
the continent. Navaho and other blankets of rarest 
texture, colour and combination of design and weave, In- 
dian baskets by the hundreds, from every known tribe, 
products of the silversmith's art of Pueblo and Navaho, 
and pottery from a score of different Indian villages, each 
distinctive and attractive, mark some of the features of 
this generous display, for it is freely opened to the in- 
spection of the traveling public. 

The business attractions and opportunities of Albu- 
querque are many and varied. It is the metropolis of the 



Albuquerque, the Commercial Metropolis 457 

State. Everybody is doing well. It is the heart of a 
prosperous and rapidly developing country. It is a 
healthful city to live in and the people are generous, 
large-hearted and, rationally sociable. If these qualities, 
combined with the other advantages I have enumerated, 
do not make it desirable as a city of residence and business 
I do not know what can. 



CHAPTER XXXI 

THE POPULATION OF NEW MEXICO 

In its 122,503 square miles, or approximately 78,401,- 
920 acres. New Mexico, in 1900, had a population of 
i95'3iO- Ten years later this had grown to 327,301, 
an increase of 67.6 per cent. Providing there has been 
a similar ratio of increase in the decade from 19 10 to 
1920, the next census should show a population of con- 
siderably over half a million. There is no doubt what- 
ever, that, as its arid plains and plateaus are irrigated, 
or better methods of agriculture obtained, New Mexico 
can well sustain a population ten or twenty times greater 
than it now possesses. But the developments named 
must come first, and they will come comparatively slowly. 
Men, women and children can live neither on antiquities, 
historic interest, climate, scenery or prospects. There is 
little doubt, too, that much of New Mexico will remain 
open for long generations yet to come, as grazing, min- 
eral, timber or waste land. 

Where, however, its population can and does find a 
good subsistence in agriculture, dairying, stock- or sheep- 
raising, fruit-culture, mining or general merchandise they 
are blessed with a vigorous and robust health fulness that 
cannot be surpassed by any State in the Union, or any 
country in the world. 

This fact has been recognized fully by the federal 
health authorities in that they have established here the 
United States Marine and Army Hospitals, both for 
tubercular patients, and there are innumerable other sana- 

458 



The Population of New Mexico 459 



■^w 



V 


n 












n 




u 


O 


Tn 


3 




(U 






C 


n 




D 




< 



3W 
£5. 






^^ 



<; <: < 



< < 






(ooo 1-1 MI' 00 10 10 po o\oo o (^1 00 o\ pooo o o o t*ii>*pooco ■<*■►-' ^mtj-»oooi^ 

Tt IX vD f^ ■^vo »-( 0^00 c^"'c^"^oo^ t^o "--oo ^'^^^ooo oojO\0\t^ ^^ "^ *^ '^ 

\ri o r<i\n fooo cToo 00^00 ^ r^ cf^o ^ oo -^ c^r **^00 IXCnO^ lOtxCI IxfOtxO tJ-OOCO 

£) iH tH mOOOO lOHHVOVO ^ C^C** 0^lrttXlH^ 0\(nO^ (^00t>."»J-txiOTj-u^ C.VO tx 



0\tOO"H-00\0« 



■^ txOO O f^ O PO o <^ 
0\ m\0 C< 00 w O^00 "^ 

^ covo '^ PO ?o in «t ^'^ 



■*Tj-tX 

VO O " 
\O">O«00txNOO .00 « 00 

C^VO' -^ (O fO M t^ *^ 



mvo o 

i-c o o 



>o o o o "-I 
■* o N >n <^ 
tc if 10 10^ 



O N O O On 
O Oi O O tx 





^s 


00 ■ 


O.N00 


m tx 




ON" "I 












\0 lO-^ 


\ovo 




« 


t-l t^ 


'. 




0) 1- 








0- . 








„ 







— CD -3 
O 1-1 Od 



3 5 



« ° S3 !3~ g rt g S-S^ 
wUh-iuc^cfiUH-iQaS 



SO 



s^'«:§ fee J 

a c o lU N CO rt cj"- o 5 nl ") S~ « o 
H^3HfLiM<H-th-lc^ffic/}^e'W,3Uv-lhJ 



4> y to 



P D t> 



D t) 






C rt « C 

■a I- S; > 3,^T3^ 



ID 0) « 



-■- rt c o 5=^ .^ »< 4) oi-ii^ Ci,rti-c SHgSa 
b'SS « 5 fi J §3 gJ s^ SkJ.o § « « « J c_S o J o -hJ;s J;^ 



460 New Mexico, Land of Delight Makera 

taria all of which are recruited constantly from the ranks 
of the ailing and weak of other States. 

It will be freely conceded, nevertheless, that there are 
not many points that differentiate most of the towns and 
cities of New Mexico from the other towns and cities of 
the growing Western States. Naturally, the environment 
and principal occupations have somewhat to do with each 
one. Roughly these may be divided into a few classes, 
such as Railroad towns, Mining towns. Agricultural 
towns, Stock-Raising towns. Irrigation towns, and the 
like. 

There are 26 counties in New Mexico, as shown in the 
accompanying table, together with their county seats and 
the population of the 19 10 census, altitude, and the 
amount of surveyed and unsurveyed public lands. 

To many penniless homeseekers this account of hun- 
dreds of thousands of acres of land, surveyed and un- 
surveyed, open for public entry as homesteads, may seem 
almost like a fairy tale, but they must not be allured by 
its vast seeming. There is practically little or no acreage 
unoccupied that can be profitably taken up by the home- 
steader who is without considerable ready cash. Water 
is essential for personal, stock, and irrigation purposes, 
and essential in large quantities, far beyond the capacity 
of any ordinary man, or small body of men, to acquire. 
It is only by large and wisely directed cooperative en- 
deavour, or by state and federal assistance that the major 
portion of this land can be put under irrigation systems 
so that the homesteader can live upon it. 

A fairly good system of publicity is maintained by 
the State for the disposal of its public lands, and a 
letter addressed to the State Land Office, Sante Fe, for 
latest and fullest particulars is sure to receive careful 
attention. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Bancroft, Hubert Howe: Arizona and New Mexico. 

Bandelier, Adolf F. : The Delight Makers, etc., etc. 

Benavides, Alonzo de: Memorial on New Mexico (Ayer's Transla- 
tion). 

Blackmar, F. W. : Spanish Institutions of the Southwest. 

Bolton, Eugene W. : Spanish Explorations of the Southwest, etc. 

Gushing, Frank Hamilton : Zuni Folk Tales ; Monographs in 
Bureau of American Ethnology Reports. 

Fewkes, Jesse Walter: Various Monographs in Bureau of Amer- 
ican Ethnology Reports. 

Gregg, Josiah : The Gommerce of the Prairies. 

Hackett, G. T. : The Revolt of the Pueblo Indians of 1680. 

Hewett, Edgar L. : The Pajaritan Culture: Several Papers in Re- 
ports of School of American Archaeology. 

Hughes, J. T. : History of the Doniphan Expedition. 

Inman, Henry: The Old Santa Fe Trail. 

James, George Wharton: Indians of the Painted Desert Region: 
Indian Blankets and their Makers : Indian Basketry ; Little 
Journeys to Strange Places and Peoples ; etc. 

Kendall, G. W. : Narrative of the Texas-Santa Fe Expedition. 

Ladd, Horatio O. : History of New Mexico : Ghunda, a story of 
the Navahos. 

LuMMis, Gharles F. : A New Mexico David and Other Stories ; 
The Man that Married the Moon: The Spanish Pioneers: The 
Land of Poco Tiempo; etc., etc. 

Pattie, James O. : Personal Narrative. 

Prince, L. Bradford: A Goncise History of New Mexico: The 
Spanish Ghurches of New Mexico: The Struggles for State- 
hood ; etc. 

Read, Benjamin M. : Illustrated History of New Mexico (both 
in Spanish and English) ; etc. 

Rhodes, Eugene Manlove: Good Men and True: West is West, 
etc. 

Ryan, Marah Ellis: The Flute of the Gods; etc. 

Saunders, G. S. and E. H. : Indians of the Terraced Houses. 

Stevenson, Matilda Goxe: Monographs on the Zia, the Zunis, etc., 
in Reports of Bureau of American Ethnology. 

461 



462 Bibliography 



Simpson, J. H. : Reconnaissance through Navaho Country. 
SiTGREAVES, LiEUT. W. H. : Expedition to the Zuni River. 
TvviTCHELL, Ralph E. : Military Occupation of New Mexico : 

Leading Facts in New Mexican History : Spanish Archives of 

New Mexico: Several Volumes Old Santa Fe (published 

quarterly) ; etc. 
ViLLAGRA, Gasper: Poetic History of New Mexico (Spanish), 
Wallace, Susan: The Land of the Pueblos. 
WiNSHip, George Parker: Translation of Castaneda's Narrative 

of Coronado's Expedition (in Bureau of Ethnology Reports). 



INDEX 



Titles of Chapters are in Italics. 



Abe.t, J. W., 352. 
Abiquiu Peak, 309. 
Acoma, the City of the Cliffs, 

3, 8, II, 13, 32, 124 et seq. 
Adventures at Zuni, My, 51 et 

seq. 
Agriculture, College of, 427. 

Indian, 188. 
Ahayuta, 65. 
Ah-co, 139. 
Akin, Louis, 387. 
Alamagordo White Sands, xiii. 
Alamo Hueco Mountains, 318. 
Albuquerque, the Commercial 

Metropolis, xii, 450 et seq. 
Altars, 206. 

Altitudes of New Mexico, 459. 
Alvarado, 139. 
Amarillo, Tierra, 308. 
American Archaeology, School 

of, 6, 247, 266. 
American Passion Play, 269 et 

seq. 
Among the Witches, 80 et seq. 
Anaia Alimazan, 46. 
Animas Mountains, 316. 
Annexation of New Mexico, 

XX. 

Antiquities of New Mexico, 

266 et seq. 
Antithesis, N. M., Land of, 

viii. 
Antonio, Fray Salvador de 

San, 13. 
Apache Indians, xi, xvii, 13, 

260. 
Architecture, Spanish Mission 

and Other, 3. 
Architecture, Native of New 

Mexico, 244 et seq. 
Civic, 247. 



463 



Tampering with, 250. 

Archuleta, Juan de, Inscrip., 44. 

Art, Influence of New Mexico 
Upon, 6, 2)7Z ^t seq. 

Art Museum at Santa Fe, 256, 
428 et seq. 

Arts and Industries of the In- 
dians, 186 et seq. 

Augustin de Ynojos, Inscrip., 

44- 
Austin, Mary, 229. 
Autograph Album, The World's 

Greatest, 34 et seq. 

B 
Bailey, Florence Merriam, 

303, 410. 
Bailey, Vernon, 303, 343. 
Bancroft, H. H., 21. 
Bandelier, Adolf, xiii, i, 21, 28, 

349- 
Barba, Martin, Inscrip., 44. 
Barreiro, Antonio, 351. 
Barrio-Nuevo, Francisco, 258. 
Basconzelos, Inscrip., 38. 
Basketry, Indian, 187. 
Bean Festivals, 6. 
Beaubien, Carlos, 258. 
Beltran, Bernaldino, Fray, 9. 
Benavides, Memorial of Fray, 

349- 
Benedict, Kirby, 161. 
Ben Hur, xi, 3, 6. 
Bernalillo, 18. 
Bibliography, 461. 
Bigelow, John, 352. 
Big Hatchet Mountains, 316. 
Biglow, Dr. J. M., 341. 
Bird Life of New Mexico, 334 

et seq. 
Black Mountains, 313. 
Blanket Weaving, xviii. 



464 



Index 



Blumenschein, E. L., 374, 384. 
Bolton, Herbert Eugene, 350. 
Botany, 340 et seq. 
Bow, Priesthood of the, 66. 
Boyd, David Ross, 423. 
Brinkerhofif, Henry R., 357. 
Building, Indian, 186. 
Building of Missions, etc., xvi. 
Burlin, Natalie Curtis, 131, 221 

et seq. 
Burro Mountains, 313. 



Cabeza de Vaca, xi, 8, 348. 
Cactus Growths, 345. 
Cadman, Charles Wakefield, 

225. 
Carleton, Gen., xi. 
Carlsbad Project, 5, 448. 
Carrizo Mountains, 311. 
Carson, Kit, 257. 
Carson National Forest, 329. 
Casteiiada, 139, 348. 
Cathedral of the Desert, 256, 

428 et seq. 
Cebolleta Mountains, 309. 
Cerro Mountains, 318. 
Chaco Canyon, 246. 
Chamita, 11. 

Chamuscado's Expedition, 8. 
Chivato, Sierra, 309. 
Chunda, 356. 
Chupadero Mesa, 318. 
Churches, Mission, 245 et seq. 
Chusca Mountains, 310. 
Cibola, Seven Cities of, x, 51. 
Cienequilla, Mesa of, 15. 
City of the Cliffs, Acotna, 124 

et seq. 
Civic Architecture of New 

Mexico, 247. 
Cliff Dwellings, i, 266 et seq. 
Climate, 4, 341 et seq. 
Cloudcroft, 320, 410. 
Cochiti, 13, 15. 

Colors, Land of High, ix, xiii. 
Commerce of the Prairies, 351. 
Continence, 214. 
Contrasts, Land of, xii. 
Controversy, Land of, x. 
Cooke, George, 352. 
Cooke, Philip, 81. 
Corn Dance Songs, 232. 
Corn Grinding Songs, 221. 
Coronado, x, xiv, 8, 51, 139, 258. 



Coronado National Forest, 333. 
Counties of New Mexico, 459. 
County Seats of New Mexico, 
^ 459- 

Couse, E. Irving, 384. 
Cowboy Songs, 366. 
Creation Myths of North 

America, 217. 
Cronyn, George W., 229. 
Cruzate, Gov., 12, 13. 
Cubero, Gov., 18. 
Culebra Peak, 304. 
Culture, Pueblo, xiii. 
Curtin, Jeremiah, 217, 
Curtis (Burlin), Natalie, 131, 

221 et seq. 
Gushing, Lieut. F. H., 51 et 

seq., 98 et seq., 189, 358. 
Cuyamunge, 16. 

D 

Darley, Rev. A. M., 274. 
Datil Mountains, 310, 313. 

National Forest, 325. 
Davis, A. H., 446. 
Davis, W. H. H., 6, 246, 354, 

417. 
Defouri, Rev. J. H., 364. 
Delight Makers, viii. 

Why the Land of the, I et 
seq. 
Deming, 5. 
Desert Etchings, 392. 
Desert, Lone Tree of the, 393. 
DeWolf, Wallace, 392 et seq. 
Diablo Mountains, 313. 
Diego de Vargas, xvii, 12. 
Discovery of Zuni, xv. 
Disease, Healing of, 215. 
Dog Mountains, 318. 
Doniphan's Expedition, 353. 
Dunton, W. Herbert, 385. 
Durango, Bishop of, 42. 
Duro, Fernandez, 21. 
Dutton, Clarence E., 347. 



Education in New Mexico, 414 

et seq. 
Elephant Butte Dam, 5. 
Elevations of New Mexico, 

302. 
El Gringo, 246, 354, 417. 
Elizaecochea, Don Martin, In- 

scrip., 41. 



Index 



465 



El Morro, Inscription Rock, 
34 et seq. 

El Paso, 30. 

Emory, W. H., 352. 

Enchanted Mesa, 3, 125 et seq., 
172, 178 et seq. 

Epic, Homeric, of New Mex- 
ico, 20 et seq. 

Espejo, 5, 9, 139- 

Estancia Valley, 6. 

Etchings by W. DeWolf, 329 
et seq. 

Experiences in New Mexico, v. 

Explorations and Subjugations 
of New Mexico, 8 et seq. 

Explorations, unauthorized, 9. 



Famine, 17. 

Farwell, Arthur, 222. 

Fasting, 214. 

Fergusson, Delegate, 419. 

Fetiches, Hunting, 98 et seq. 

Fewkes, Dr. Jesse Walter, 98. 

Fiesta at Taos, 260. 

Fight over Statehood, vii. 

Figueredo, Fray, 40. 

Fillmore, John Comfort, 222. 

Flagellantes, Order of, 269 et 
seq. 

Flight of Spaniards from New 
Mexico, xvii. 

Flood, Zuni Legend of, 72. 

Flora of New Mexico, 340 et 
seq. 

Flute of the Gods, i. 

Forests of New Mexico, Na- 
tional, 322 et seq. 

Foreword, By Way of, v et seq. 

Franciscan Missions, 248 et 
seq., 266. 
Zeal of, xvi, 9. 

Fraternities, Zuni, 203. 



Galisteo, 14. 

Game Protective Assn. of New 

Mexico, 317, 338. 
Garsya, Juan, Inscrip., 44. 
Geological Terms, 347. 
Ghost Dance of Zunis, 225. 
Gila Mountains, 314. 

National Forest, 314, 326. 

River, 314. 
Goat Peak, 309. 



Goats, 4. 

Goldman, E. A., 315. 

Gonzales, Inscrip., 38. 

Graham, D. D., 89. 

Gran Quivera, xi. 

Grants, Spanish and Mexican, 

xviii. 
Gray, E. D. McQueen, 422. 
Great Pueblo Rebellion of 

1680, 24 et seq. 
Gregg, Josiah, 351. 
Griffin, Walter Burleigh, 423. 
Grunn, Homer, 240. 
Guadalupe Mountains, 320. 
Gunn, John, of Taos, 263. 
Gunn, John M., of Laguna, 368. 

H 

Hachita Valley, 318. 
Harwood, Burt, Mr. and Mrs., 

387. 
Harwood, Rev. Thomas, 364. 
Hatchet Mountains, Big, 316. 
Health in New Mexico, xx, 4. 
Heart of the Well Country, 455. 
Henderson, Miss Rose, 370. 
Herrick, Dr. C. L., 421. 
Hewett, Dr. Edgar L., 244 et 

seq., 266. 
Higgins, Victor, 388. 
Hirsch, Lee F., 391. 
Hodge, F. W., 45, 349- 
Homeric Epic of New Mexico, 

20 et seq. 
Hondo Project, 450. 
Hopi, 13. 

Hough, Walter, 140. 
Hughes, John T., 353. 
Humano, 10. 

Hunting with Indians,gS et seq. 
Hurtado, Juan P., Inscrip., 47. 
Hurtado, Ramon P., Inscrip., 

47- 



Illiteracy in New Mexico, xii. 
Indians, ix, 2, 3, 8, 9, 17. 

Arts and Industries of the, 
186 et seq. 

Etiquette, 210. 
Rebellion, xvi. 

Religion of the, 195 et seq. 

Songs and Music, 220 et seq. 

Weavers, 187. 



466 



Index 



Influence of New Mexico upon 
Art, 373 et seq. 
Literature, 347 et seq. 
Inman, Col. W. H., 352. 
Inscription Rock, 12, 34 et seq. 
Irrigation in New Mexico, 5, 
187, 444 et seq. 



Jemez, 16, 32. 

Mountains, 309. 
Jesus Lopez, Fray Mariano do, 

159- 
Jicarilla Mountains, 320. 
Johnston, Capt. A. R., 352. 
Jornada del Muerta, 340. 
JouUin, Lucille, 399. 
Juan de Onate, 8, 10. 

Establishes San Juan, 11. 

Inscription, 37. 

Trip to South Sea, 12. 
Juan Jesus, Fray, Murdered, 32. 
Juillard, Geo. J., Rev., 124, 165. 
Judson, William Lees, 401. 
Juparelo, 37. 

K 
Katsimo, the Enchanted Mesa, 

3, 178 et seq. 
Keakokshi Dance, 75. 
Kearny, Gen. S. W., xvii, xx. 
Kendall, George W., 351. 
Kern, R. H., 34, 246. 



Ladd, Rev. Horatio O., 356. 

Laguna, 124, 156. 

Lamy, Bishop, 416. 

Lands, Public, 458. 

Lava Beds, xiii, 2. 

Leading Facts of New Mex- 
ican History, 363. 

Leopoldo, Aldo, 334. 

Letrado, Padre, 45. 

Lewis, 34. 

Levya, 10. 

Libbey, Prof. W., 3, 173. 

Lieurance, Thurlow, 221 et 
seq. 

Life Zones of New Mexico, 

303- 
Lincoln National Forest, 327. 
Literary Colony, 6. 
Literature, Influence of New 

Mexico on, 6, 347 et seq. 



Little Elk Mountains, 313. 
Localities of Plants from New 

Mexico, 343. 
Lorenzo, Tata, 169. 
Love Songs, Indian, 237. 
Lucero, Antonio, 417. 
Lujan, Inscrip., 45. 
Lummis, C. F., 3, 6, 23, 44, 95, 

126, 145, 178 et seq., 274, 

347 et seq., 450. 

M 

Maasilima, 65. 

Magdalena Mountains, 315. 

Maldonado, Fray Lucas, 151. 

Man Who Married the Moon, 
359- 

Manzano Mountains, 318. 
National Forest, 330. 

Marcos de Nizza, xv, 348. 

Marcy, Capt. R. B., 353. 

Maria, Fray Santa, Murdered, 
8. 

Markham, Edwin, xxi. 

Martinez, Fray, 10, 143. 

Martinez, Gov., 43. 

Martinez, Padre, 258. 

Massacres of Priests, xvi. 

Matthews, Washington, 213, 
357- 

Maude, F. H., 65. 

Maxwell, Lucien B., 258. 

Mazon, Leopoldo, 52. 

Medicine, Good and Bad, 211. 

Medicine Men, 211. 

Melita the Witch, 91. 

Menaul, John, 369. 

Mesa Black, 15. 

Mesa Encantada, or the En- 
chanted Mesa, X, 125 et 
seq., 172, 178 et seq. 

Mesa, What Is a? 347. 

Mesilla, 5. 

Mexican Belief in Witches, 95. 
Life, ix. 
Rebellion of 1847, 258. 

Military Institute, 425. 

Military Occupation of New 
Mexico, 363. 

Miller, James, 175. 

Mimbres Mountains, 313. 
Valley, 5. 

Mines, 5, 9. 

State School of, 5, 426. 

Mission Architecture, 3, 



Index 



467 



Mission Churches, 245 et seq., 

266 et seq. 
MogoUon Mountains, 310, 313, 

315- 
Mora Ceballos, Gov., 46. 
Morro, El, 42 et seq. 
Mosaics, Sand, 2.05. 
Mother-in-Law Taboo, 214. 
Mountains of New Mexico, 

viii, 302 et seq. 
Museum of Art, Santa Fe, 256, 

428 et seq. 
Music, Acoma, 132. 

Indian, 220 et seq. 
Mythology, 207. 

N 
Nah-nee-tah, 357. 
Naiuchi, 88, 206. 
National Forests of New Mex- 
ico, 322 et seq. 
Native Architecture of New 

Mexico, 244 et seq. 
Nature Worship, 201. 
Navaho Country, 34. 
Indians, xi, xvii, 311. 
Legends, 357. 
Night Chant, 357. 
New Mexico, Historic Impor- 
tance of, xiv. 
Influence on Art and Liter- 
ature, 6. 
Newspaper, First, 258. 
Nick, Zuni, Tried for Witch- 
craft, 86. 
Nieto-Silva, Gov., 39, 40. 
Notes of Military Reconnais- 
sance, 352. 

O 

Oak Spring Mountains, 313. 
Oiiate, Juan de, 8, 10, 14, 21, 
140, 259, 349. 
Trip to South Sea, 12, 37. 
Otermin, Gov., xvii, 12, 29, 33. 



Pacification of New Mexico, 14. 
Pahos, 207. 
Painters, Artists, xii. 
Paintings, Sand, 205. 
Parke's Exploration, 341. 
Paso y Troncoso, 21. 
Passion Play, The American, 
269 et seq. 



Path of the Rainbow, 229. 
Paullin, L. R. E., 418. 
Pearson, Kate Terry, 393. 
Pecos Baldy, 305. 
Indians, 15. 
River, 5. 
Valley, 320. 
Pelado Peak, 309. 
Peloncillo Mountains, 316. 
Penitentes, viii, 3, 262, 269 et 

seq. 
Officers of the, 277 et seq. 
Perea, Custodian, 38. 
Perez, Col. Albino, 415. 
Personification of Nature, 201. 
Peters, Dr., 455. 
Phillips, Bert, 374, 383. 
Physical Culture Among In- 
dians, 199. 
Pike, Albert, 351. 
Pike, Zebulon, 349. 
Pino, P. B., 351. 
Pinyon Mountains, 310. 
Places, Land of High, ix. 
Playground, New Mexico, the 

Nation's, xx, 409 et seq. 
Poco Tiempo, Land of, 359. 
Pollen, 207. 

Pope's Expedition, 341. 
Pope, Rebellion of, xvi, 2 et 

seq. 
Population of New Mexico, 

458 et seq. 
Pottery, Indian, 189. 
Powell, J. W., SI. 
Price, Col. Sterling, 258. 
Priests, Massacre of Spanish, 

xxi. 
Of the Sacred Bow, 66. 
Prince, L. Bradford, Gov., 

268, 355. 
Prince, Mrs., 352. 
Public Lands of New Mexico, 

455- 
Pueblos, Land of the, 355. 
Of the Rio Grande, Taos and, 

2S7 et seq. 
Rebellion of 1680, 24 et seq. 

Q 

Quiros, Fray Cristobal de, 43. 

R 
Races at Taos, 261. 
Rainbow, Path of the, 229. 



468 



Index 



Rain Dance of Zunis, 222. 
Ramirez, Fray Juan, 151. 
Read, Benj. M., and His His- 
tory of New Mexico, 143, 

355, 364. 
Rebellion of 1680, xvi, 24 et seq. 
Of Indians, 14, 153. 
Of Mexicans in 1847, 258. 
Reclamation Service, 6. 
Reclaiming the Arid West, 447. 
Religion of the Indians, 195 et 

seq. 
Religious Zeal of Spaniards, 

xvi. 
Rhodes, Eugene Manlove, 365. 
Rio Grande, 5, 444. 
Rito de Los Frijoles, i. 
Rocky Mountain Camp Co., 

408. 
Roque, Fray, 40, 41. 
Roswell, 5. 

Ruins on El Morro, 35, 48. 
Ryan, Marah Ellis, 3. 



Sacramento Mountains, 320. 

Salpointe, Archb. J. B., 364. 

Sanctuario, xi. 

Sand Paintings, 205. 

San Andres Mountains, 318. 

Sandia Mountains, 318. 

San Esteban, Church of, 153. 

Fiesta of, 162 et seq. 
San Felipe, 14, 15. 
San Francisco Mountains, 313. 
San Geronimo, Fiesta of, 259. 
San Ildefonso, 15, 25. 
San Jose, Picture of, 155. 
San Juan de los Caballeros, 11, 

25, 37- 
San Juan Mountains, 308. 
San Lorenzo, 31. 
San Luis Mountains, 316. 
San Mateo Mountains, xi, 309, 

315- 
Sangre de Cristo Mountams, 

303. 
Santa Ana, 15, 16. 
Santa Fe, 6, 13, 16, 25, 28, 351. 
Santa Fe National Forest, 331. 
Santa Fe Trail, 352. 
Santo Domingo, 11, 13, 17. 
Sauerwin, Frank, 387. 
Schat-Chen, 368. 
Sedgewick, Mount, 372. 



Seeing New Mexico, Ancient 
and Modern Methods, 403 
et seq. 
Shamans, 211. 
Sharp, J, H., 374- 
Sheep, 4. 
Shipapu, 208. 

Sierra Blanca Mountains, 320. 
Sierra Chivato, 309. 
Sierra Oscuro, 318. 
Silva Nieto, Gov., Inscrip., 39, 

40. 
Simpson, Lieut. J. H., 34, 353. 
Snake Dance at Acoma, 140. 
Socorro, 5, 426. 
Songs and Music, Indian, 220 

et seq. 
Songs, Ceremonial, 211. 
Spaniards Slain, 29. 
Spanish Archives of New Mex- 
ico, 364. 
Spanish Conquest of New 

Mexico, 354. 
Springer, Hon. Frank, xix, 

428 et seq. 
Stanley, Paul C, 343. 
Statehood, Fight over, vii. 
Stevenson, Col. James, 358. 
Stevenson, Mrs. Matilda Coxe, 
71, 80 et seq., 193, 203 et 
seq.. 358. 
St. Joseph's Sanitorium, 455. 
St. Stephen, Fiesta of, 162 et 

seq. 
St. Vrain, Cerain, 258. 
Stockmen, 4. 
Stover, E. S., 421. 
Sunrise Call of Zunis, 227. 
Superstitious Life, ix. 
Surprises of New Mexico, viii. 
Symbolism of Indians, 207. 
Symons, Gardner, 170. 



Taboos, Indian, 313. 
Taiyoallane, 65. 
Tanos Indians, 14. 
Taos, xiii, 3, 6, 16, 26. 

And the Pueblos of the Rio 
Grande, 257 et seq. 

Rancho de, 263. 

San Fernando de, 2(52. 

Society of Artists, 373 et seq. 

Peak, 304. 
Tapia, Pedro de, 14. 



Index 



469 



Taylor, Mount, xi, 309. 
Tehuas Indians, 15. 
Temperatures, 342. 
Terms, Geological, 347. 
Texas-Santa Fe Expedition, xi, 

351. 
Tierra Amarillo, 308. 
Tight, Pres. W. G., 421. 
Topographical Diversity, 340. 
Tramp Across Continent, 359. 
Trees, New Mexico, viii. 
Troyer, Carlos, 221. 
Truchas Peak, 304. 
Tsnahey, Gov. of Zuni, 62, 86. 
Tucson Mountains, 313. 
Tucumcari, x. 
Tularosa Mountains, 313. 
Tupatu, 13. 

Tuyo, the Black Mesa, 15. 
Twitchell, Col. Ralph E., 355 

et seq. 



U 
Ufer, Walter, 388. 
Unahikah, Shrine of, 67. 
University of New Mexico, ^i 

et seq. 
Urribarri, Juan de, 44. 



V 
Vargas, Diego de, xvii, 12, 13, 
16, 17, 18, 19, 33, 153, 259. 
Vargas, Inscrip., 43. 
Verdadero, Relacion, 38. 
Vierra, Carlos, 245 et seq., 401. 
Villagra's Epic, 3, 20. 
Villagra at Acoma, 144 et seq. 
Vogt, Even Z., 50. 



W 
Wallace, Lew, xi, 3, 6, 355. 
Wallace, Susan E., 355. 
Washington, Lieut.-Col. J. M., 

34- 
Weavers, Indian, 186. 
Wemahe, 98 et seq., 193, 
Wendell, Barrett, 366. 
Wewha, 63, 91. 
Wheeler Peak, 302. 
Whipple, Lieut., 341. 
White Mountains, 313. 
Whittin Hall, 418. 
Why " the Land of the Delight- 
Makers," I et seq. 
Winship, George Parker, 349. 
Wishzenus, Dr. A., 340. 
Witches, Among the, 80 et seq. 
Withrovi', Eva Almond, 400. 
Wooton, E. O., 343. 
Words, Significance of Indian, 

233- 
Worship, Indian, 195 et seq. 
Wright, Charles, 341. 

Z 
Zaidivar, Juan de, ir, 142. 
Zaidivar, Vicente de, 3, ii, 143. 
Zamora, Francisco de, 259. 
Zia, 14, IS, 16. 
Zones, Life and Crop, in New 

Mexico, 303. 
Zuni, 13, 32, 43, 44, SI et seq., 
203 et seq. 

Child Life in, 358. 

Discovery of, xv. 

Food Stuffs, 359. 

Lullaby, 235. 

Mountains, 309. 

My Adventures at, 51 et seq. 
Zutucapan, 141, 



